Paranoia Breeds Tyranny
by TitanWolf
Summary: The impending arrival of the ultimate being of death and destruction has caused PB to take drastic measures. Unfortunately for her, this has influenced her decision-making for the worst. By calling forth unlikely allies and by turning away from those that could have been trustworthy, PB for all we know may have sealed her fate.
1. The Dream

**The Dream**

* * *

 _In the dream, as it was every night, the candy people had been screaming and running as bullets tore through them like paper while planes screamed overhead. The roar of tanks rolling unopposed through the streets, crushing the living and the dead under their treads._

 _"Burn! All of you will burn!" Flame King laughed, he was walking among the dead and the dying, burning everything in his path. The smell of charred meat mixed with the sweet smell of candy made her almost feint. Then, SHE had been down there with them. Her throat was raw from screaming for everyone to stop._

 _The worst had been when the candy people began to cry out for her, for their mother to save them. She screamed as the blackened skeletons and the crushed remains from the tanks treads began to drag themselves towards her._

 _"Save us princess!" they wailed, their voices blending together to create a torment of high screaming and crying that seemed to roar all around her like a tempest. "Mother, please make it stop!"_

 _She had tried to flee, to run and get away, but; something stopped her. Finn was standing there, blocking her path. The youthful, smiling face she cherished was a horror. The skin of his face was a sickly greenish yellow and it seemed to wriggle and writhe. To her shock it began to split in places and fat, white maggots were revealed to be crawling around._

 _"I'll save you, princess!" he said. When he opened his mouth a torrent of black blood flowed thickly from between his teeth and ran down his chin and stained his shirt. Before she could react, several arrows sprouted through his chest, their heads were wicked looking hooks of black metal._

 _Blood began to trickle from Finn's eyes and nose as he fell forward. Behind him, mounted on a horse as black as the night was The King of Ooo._

 _"I killed him for you Princess Bubblegum!" he called, smiling cruelly. "The traitor is dead!"_

 _"No!" she tried to scream but; found that she had no voice. It was then that she felt the hands clutching and clawing at her dress. She looked down to see that the corpses of her subjects were pulling her down, sinking her down into the blood soaked soil. "Let me go! Let me go!"_

 _"Mother! Make the pain stop!" they shrieked together. She began to scratch and claw at her face. "We'll be loyal! don't hurt us anymore Princess!"_

 _Overhead a large black shape was circling, before she was violently pulled down into the darkness she saw it swooping down._

 _It looked like a monstrous bat._

She awoke screaming. The lamp on her night stand beside her pillow turning on made her recoil away from it, expecting to see some gore soaked monstrosity from her dream standing there.

"Are you okay, princess?" at the sight of a very concerned Peppermint Butler, Bubblegum inched her way back over to the middle of the bed. "Shall I fetch you some tea?"

She doubted that she would be able to hold the cup. Her hands were still shaking like made.

"No thank you Peps," she replied, ashamed of how she was acting. "Just a bad dream is all, you can go back to bed."

the little peppermint looked at her, a worried expression that told her he wouldn't. She sighed in defeat and looked down at her hands.

"Okay, the dream went like this," she began.

The telling took longer than she expected, PB found her voice breaking up when she got to the candy people crying for help. She began to sob just mentioning Finn's name. To his credit, Peppermint Butler didn't interrupt, or ask any questions. He knew that if he spoke at all the princess would try to keep him talking to weasel out of telling him her dream.

After what seemed like hours, she was finished.

"It was only a dream, princess," he said, softly patting her shaking hand. "Dreams aren't real, they can't hurt you."

Bubblegum nodded, and laid back against her pillow.

"How about that tea now?" he prodded gently. "Think you can have a cup?"

"Maybe," she said, looking over at him and he could see the fear in her eyes. He remembered the little girl she used to be, and knew that the dream had affected her deeply. "Will you stay with me tonight? I don't want to be alone."

"Of course, princess," hopping down to the floor. "I'll be right back with that tea."

When she was alone, Bubblegum stared up at the ceiling and thought about who she had seen, obviously they were the enemy. That was plain to see. One was the former leader of the Fire Kingdom, and the other was a liar and a cheat. Both were scum, that was a fact.

But; even scum could prove useful if put to the right purpose.

* * *

Phoebe hated meetings. The endless tide of people requesting this or that, bills that needed approving, making sure the food supply was correctly rationed and accounted for, it was all so boring.

'If I knew this was ruling i'd have let dad keep the throne,' she thought, knowing that that was wrong, her dad was horrible, and he made the Fire Kingdom suffer. 'I have to fix that,'

At the back of the hall she spied Flambo trying to slip in undetected. While the latest noble was droning on about zoning lines for his volcano palace, Phoebe watched as Flambo crept around the outer perimeter until he was up front.

She watched sideways as he slipped up next to Cinnamon Bun and began to whisper to him hurriedly. A confused look crossed Cinnamon Bun's face.

"Really?" she heard him whisper. Her knight looked up at her, before whispering back to Flambo. "That's where they are."

Flambo winked at him before scurrying off.

'Wonder what that was about?' she thought. Phoebe looked back to see the noble was waiting for her judgment. "Denied."

Her mind kept racing back to what had just transpired between her faithful knight and that little pest, so caught up in the what and why, that she ignored the angry fire noble storming out of the hall.

That was the tipping point.

* * *

PB looked a little worse for wear. Dark circles under her eyes and a tired expression told the hero that his princess hadn't slept much last night. He had wondered on the walk over what princess Bubblegum could want from them so early in the morning, the sun had barely risen above the mountains when he and Jake set out from the Tree Fort.

"Mornin' Princess!" Finn said, behind him he heard Jake stuff the rest of a tart into his mouth.

"Mmekfjg pribdbn!" Jake gargled, his mouth full.

She smiled tiredly at them, and sat up straighter.

"Finn, Jake, I need both of you to perform a very special mission for me," she said, snapping her fingers, and almost immediately Peppermint Butler appeared holding out a rolled up piece of parchment. "Deliver this message to the Flame King as fast as you can. Its very very very important!"

Finn took the message and carefully placed it in his backpack.

"Sure thing PB, come on Jake we're off to the Fire Kingdom!" Finn said.

The two stopped when Bubblegum called them.

"No, Finn! The message isn't for Phoebe," Bubblegum said. "It's for her dad."

"Really? What do you need to talk to him for?" Finn asked.

The princess shook her head.

"Secret business," she said. "Now scoot! Flambo will lead you to him."

"Okay, see ya later princess," Finn replied.

Peppermint Butler looked up at her. She could tell he wanted to ask her about the message, but; didn't want to intrude on it.

"Yes Peps?" she asked, looking down at him.

The tiny peppermint could see that the princess was exhausted, she had only tossed and turned last night after he said he would stay the night. Eventually, he had held her as she cried into his chest.

"Princess," he began, trying to find the right words to use in this delicate situation. "Are you completely sure that THIS is the solution?"

She yawned tiredly and frowned.

"No, but; compromise is the backbone of success," she said, she yawn again. "Tea please, brown sugar instead of white."

"At once," he said, as he jogged off to fetch PB her drink a knot began to grow in his belly. 'I hope you're right about this, my sweet little girl.'

* * *

"So its right over here," Flambo said. At the bottom of the hill, they could made out the opening of a cave almost completely hidden by rocks and weeds. "Yeah, he took to hidin' his'self if Flame Princess sent her guys after 'im."

"How did you know where this was, anyway?" Jake asked, looking down at the flambit.

"Had to go ask ol' CB where it is since he's the only one that knew," Flambo replied. "Well, sees ya later fellas!"

"Come on, Jake," Finn said, as he headed down the hill. "Sooner we get this over with the sooner we can hit the Breakfast Kingdom!"

"Oh boy I can't wait!" Jake exclaimed.

The entrance to the cave had been blocked off almost completely, forcing Finn to crawl on his hands and knees. Jake shrank down and followed. Eventually they came out into a wide chamber filled with darkness, and immediately were greeted by a happy little voice.

"Hi Finn!" across the chamber Finn smiled as he saw a tiny cinnamon bun come running towards him.

"Hey Bun Bun," he said, hugging the pastry. "Is Flame King here? We have a message for him."

a deep voice answered.

"I am here," the darkness of the cavern was chased away by the former Fire Kingdom leader as he illuminated the cave. All around them were chipmunks holding toothpicks like spears. "Give me this message and begone, the very sight of you sickens me!"

Finn passed Bun Bun to Jake, who immediately found his ears being pulled. Digging in his backpack, Finn fished out PB's letter and held it out.. The Flame King growled in his throat as he came closer, his flame getting bigger and bigger, though, Finn didn't know if it was because of anger or just his actual size close up.

The message was snatched out of his hand.

"Fireproof paper, clever," he mumbled, opening the letter, he scanned it quickly before folding it back up. "You may leave."

"But what about your answer-"

"I SAID SCRAM!" he roared, causing the two heroes to quickly retreat into the tunnel, lest they be cooked alive by the heat. The Flame King reopened the letter and read it carefully.

 _Dear Flame King,_

 _I wish to offer you a place at court in the Candy Kingdom as my Master of War. I am afraid that a vast and terrible evil is coming to Ooo and am in need of allies who I know will be able to turn the tide in our favor._

 _You will not be forced to take the position, and I will not expect you to answer this letter, but; you should be aware that, if you do choose to side with me you will be amply rewarded. I do not trust your daughter, I fear that she is unstable and too hotheaded to safely rule the Fire Kingdom._

 _It would be in our best interest if you were to once again rule as king. The Fire Kingdom in my opinion has grown soft and weak under Phoebe's rule, it is not the juggernaut of old such as when you were ruler._

 _Help me save Ooo, and I will see that you regain your throne, and together the Fire and Candy Kingdoms will be a shining bastion of strength and peace._

 _Please, join me at my palace if you desire such a future._

 _Yours truly,_

 _Princess Bubblegum_

"What's it say?" Bun Bun asked.

The Flame King looked down at the tiny pastry and smiled.

"It says we're moving to the Candy Kingdom," he said, smiling evilly. Firing a massive ball of flame the Flame King effortlessly cleared the cave opening. Picking up Bun Bun, he looked down at the chipmunks. "I'll be back in a few days, I want to find the badgers and skunks conquered when I return!"

the chipmunks began to cheer as the Flame King flew off in a streak of flame.

* * *

Princess Bubblegum took a sip of her tea and leaned back in her chair. Peppermint Butler had told her of the Flame King's arrival.

"Please, join us," she said, as he entered, and took a seat on her council. All along the council table the princess looked into the faces of her enemies. But; that was the past and now they would have to be friends. "I'd like to thank you all for coming here to meet with me today. I would like to lead off with that I know all of us have been…. At odds in the past. But; I'm afraid that now fate is pushing us towards something much more dangerous and we few are all that stands in the way of total destruction."

The assembled began talking among themselves. She could see that her words had touched them, that they understood. That was good, at least she didn't need to spell it out.

"Now, if no one objects, lets introduce ourselves," she said.

Starting from her left they went around the table.

"Ricardio,"

"Sir Slicer,"

"The King of Ooo, of course!"

"Hey, I'm Toronto,"

"Flame King, Master of War!"

"Maja the Sky Witch,"

"Tiffany,"

"Stevie!"

the assorted villains looked at the tiny red squirrel in confusion.

"Why is a squirrel here?" Maja asked.

The squirrel began to foam at the mouth and shake violently.

"Stevie is the most hate filled creature in the land of Ooo," Bubblegum said. "I offered him a spot because his ferocity is unmatched."

"I get to kill Jake!" he screamed shrilly.

"No, I said Jake will print all your letters," she replied. "Anyway, moving on, nothing we say or do leaves this room. i'm afraid what the other princesses will think if they found out about this."

"Princess, if I may," Ricardio said. "What exactly is this great darkness you fear is coming?"

She took a deep breath.

"The Lich,"

 **END CHAPTER 1**


	2. Hunting The Lich

**Hunting The Lich**

* * *

The silence in the room was stifling. Bubblegum watched on as looks of stark abject horror appeared on her erstwhile allies faces one by one. All except for two. The King of Ooo and his dog companion Toronto were looking slightly uneasy, and PB began to wonder.

"Is there something you'd like to tell the rest of the group?" she asked. Her voice echoed loudly in the room after several minutes of quiet.

"Well, we kind of already know where he is," Toronto said, he slid down nervously in his chair as the eyes of the other villains began to fall on him.

Bubblegum leaned forward, placing her chin on her hands.

"Do you now?" she asked. Her face was a calm mask but; the sound of her heart pounding in her ears reminded her of the tank shells falling on the kingdom. "Please, enlighten the rest of us, my friends."

"Well…. Um i-"

Flame King jumped to his feet, slamming his hands on the table hard enough to split it all the way down the middle.

"Answer your princess!" he roared. Despite herself, Bubblegum smiled, at least one of them was for her. "Quit sniveling like a beaten cur and speak!"

"He's in disguise at that apple orchard," King of Ooo said, placing a hand on his shaking dog friend. "When Toronto and I threatened to burn the orchard he transformed and attacked us."

That was interesting. The Lich was hiding in plain sight, why hadn't she thought of that. he'd hidden inside Billy and a snail before.

"Okay, that's good to know," she said. "Here's what I want you to do, King of Ooo I want you and Toronto to go to the orchard and threaten it again. Sir Slicer, you will wait until the Lich reveals himself before attacking from behind and killing it."

Sir Slicer smiled.

"A very ch ch plan, my princess," he said, giving her an okay sign.

She sighed, now came the hard part.

"Flame King, if the first plan fails I want you to burn the orchard," she said. "If the empty threat doesn't draw the Lich out then we should follow through. But; remember, if your caught or someone sees you, then I never saw you or knew about this. Understand?"

When she was finally alone, Bubblegum slumped down into her arms.

* * *

The night was still, somewhere in the dark an owl hooted, and a wolf howled at the moon. The three of them slunk through the trees like phantoms, garbed in black with hoods hiding their faces. Flame King remained behind with the horses, awaiting the signal.

"There's the house," Toronto whispered. The tiny cottage was dark, that made it easier to approach without being spotted. The dog began wrapping each of the torches they brought in rags soaked in gas while the King of Ooo quietly slipped up to have a look in the windows.

"Here," he called back. "This window's the one we want."

Sir Slicer slipped away into the night to take up his position. The tension was thick enough to cut with a knife as Toronto began lighting the torches as the King of Ooo returned.

"You ready to do this, Toronto?" he asked.

"Honestly? Something about this feels wrong," he said, threatening to burn something was one thing, but actually doing it to someone was another thing all together. "The Princess said just to threaten them, and then burn the orchard if that failed, not this!"

Without another word, the King of Ooo hurled the first torch. It soared through the air and smashed through one of the windows, and immediately the inside of the cottage was illuminated by flames. Seeing no way to go back now, Toronto hurled one of his own torches.

It arched across the summer sky and landed on the roof, he held his breath, hoping it would go out, but; unfortunately, the roof was soon burning away.

"That's the way!" King of Ooo ran up to the house and hurled his last torch through another window. The lights coming on made him quickly rush back to his dog companion. "Throw the torch! Hurry!"

He hesitated when the front door opened and the occupants ran out into the night. Before he could react, Toronto's torch was yanked away and the King of Ooo hurled it at the family.

"No!" Toronto shouted. The torch passed over the pig's head by inches and landed inside the door.

"Our house! Oh my goodness get some water!" they heard the tiny elephant scream. Watching from the trees, the two saw as the pig scrambled around trying to straighten out a garden hose and pull it closer.

"Hurry papa hurry!" the huge kid yelled, on the wind Toronto could smell that the kid had pissed himself.

"He's not transforming!" King of Ooo hissed. Toronto watched as his longtime friend stood up and drew his bow.

"What're you doing?" he asked.

King of Ooo notched an arrow and drew it back to his ear.

"Bringing the Lich out," he replied. Before Toronto could stop him, the arrow was loosed. Unfortunately, the smoke and the flames had blinded the King of Ooo, so instead of hitting the house next to the kid's head, it drove into the little elephant's neck with a wet thunk.

She began to trumpet in pain, a high pitched squealing that made Toronto cover his ears, trying to drown it out. His heart was pounding in his chest as he looked on as the kid was screaming and crying while the pig kept trying to stop the fire from spreading anymore.

Jumping up, Toronto ran across the tiny clearing. Quickly ripping the arrow free, he yanked his cloak off and held it against the neck wound. The sudden pain of the arrows removal and being grabbed made the tiny pachyderm struggle and trumpet harder.

"You! Leave my mama alone!" Toronto was violently shoved away as the kid picked up the shrieking elephant and held her to him. Eventually, the sound began to weaken, then, mercifully, they stopped. "Mama? Mama?"

The pig finally gave up on trying to stop the fire. He looked over to where the kid was hugging the dead elephant and crying his eyes out. Then, he looked at Toronto, a look of murderous and uncontrollable rage crossed his face.

"I'll kill you!" he screamed. In an instant he was on top of the dog and began punching and kicking at him with everything he had. Finally, he wrapped both hands around the dog's throat and began to squeeze. "Die! Die! Die-"

His grip suddenly loosened, allowing Toronto to take a ragged breath. Something warm began to drip onto the dog's face. When his vision cleared he watched as Slicer pulled his sword out from the pig's body.

"Papa! No no no no!" the kid screamed again, tears and snot streaming down his face as he scooped up the dead pig and ran off into the night carry the two tiny bodies as carefully as he could.

"Why didn't he transform?" King of Ooo asked, walking over. In the distance they watched as the sky began to glow red. "Flame King must have gotten bored."

"What do we do now?" Toronto asked, sitting up and rubbing his bruised throat. "Do we go back to the palace?"

"Did he see your face?" Slicer asked, looking down at the dog. He offered him a hand up.

"Yeah but-" he was cut off as Slicer stabbed his sword through Toronto's neck as he pulled him up. King of Ooo watched on as Toronto began to drown in his own blood while Sir Slicer wiped his sword clean. When that was done the two grabbed the dog by his hands and feet and tossed him into the burning house.

"Let's go back," Slicer said. "The princess will want to know about this."

The two slipped away back into the night as the fire raged, eventually it began to spread to the orchard.

* * *

Finn was awakened by the glowing. At first he thought it was morning, the red tinged sky in the east was barely coming up over the mountains. But; after a look at his bedside clock he was that it was just after midnight.

"What the heck?" he mumbled sleepily. Sitting up he rubbed his eyes and yawned. "Hey Jake, wake up!"

The magic dog rolled over and groaned.

"Jake, come on Jake," Finn said. Grabbing one of his shoes off the floor he tossed it at his brother. The shoe bounced off Jake's nose.

"Ow! What the bleep, Finn?" he asked, rubbing his nose. "What the heck's going on outside?"

Finn hopped out of bed, and made his way over to the window. The red glow had gotten bigger in the minute or so since Finn had first saw it.

"I don't know, probably a rave or something," he said. Down in the yard, movement caught his eye. Finn felt a chill go down his spine at the sight of Sweet Pea, covered in blood and carrying Tree Trunks and Mr. Pig. "Holy Glob! Jake, outside now!"

By the time the two heroes had made it outside, Sweet Pea was sitting on the ground rocking back and forth. He was cradling the two little bodies gently. His face was streaked with tears and dried snot.

"Mama and papa won't wake up," he said, sniffling. Almost reluctantly, he held them out towards Finn and Jake. "Please, make them wake up Finn."

Finn felt his heart break at the sight of one of his oldest friends lying lifeless, covered in dried blood. Gently taking the tiny elephant from the boy, Finn placed her on the ground and slowly unwrapped the cloak around her.

Looking back to see Jake trying to hold Mr. Pig, and struggling to keep his guts from falling out the gash in his stomach, made Finn almost puke.

"Jake, why don't you take Sweet Pea inside and make him some coco," Finn said softly, looking down at Tree Trunks. "I'll take care of them."

Once Jake finally led the large, sobbing child inside, Finn sighed wearily.

He began to dig the graves.

* * *

"What do you mean he didn't transform?" Bubblegum asked. she'd been roused from a fitful sleep by Peppermint Butler, informing her that her men had returned. "And where's Toronto?"

Sir Slicer looked up from where he knelt on the floor.

"Dead, your grace," he said, causing a knot to grow in the princess's stomach. "The Lich threw him into the fire."

"Did you threaten to burn the orchard?" she asked.

"We did, it didn't work," the King of Ooo said, he looked very old. Bubblegum realized that the dog's death would have been tough for him. "The boy didn't transform, he just went berserk when the fire spread to the house, and killed the pig and the elephant. Toronto tried to save them, but he was hurled into the blaze."

The princess sighed wearily, this wasn't good. If the Lich didn't transform after killing his adoptive parents then what would make it show itself? She looked at the three, and sighed again.

"He didn't see your faces did he?" she asked.

"Only Toronto's, my princess," Flame King replied. "I was back with the horses waiting for the signal to set the orchard on fire."

"Very well then, if we play this close to our hearts no one will know our involvement," she said, turning away. "King of Ooo, I want your spies coming the entire kingdom for him. Find the Lich before he kills again."

"As you command, Princess Bubblegum," he said.

"Sir Slicer, a moment. The rest of you may leave us," PB said. When they were alone she turned to face the knight. "I fear for my kingdom, the Lich is a danger I cannot allow to run free. Tell me, where did he run to? Which direction?"

Slicer looked down to avoid her gaze.

"West, towards the giants," he replied.

That was a problem, if the Lich took control of the giants then nothing would be able to stop them if they invaded. She weighed her options and frowned.

"In the morning ride for the Marauders," she ordered. "I want every clan here by the end of next week."

Sir Slicer nodded.

"Yes, my princess," he said. "What shall I offer them? The chieftains will want something."

Of course they would.

"Tell them if they come to me they will have all the plunder they can carry," she said. "But; only if they swear to fight for me."

"Yes, my lady," Slicer stood, as he turned to go Bubblegum spoke again.

"Sir Slicer," she said, causing him to turn back to look at her. "Head down to the armory, i've had a custom suit made for you as my envoy. Its ten times harder than steel and as light as a feather. Likewise a sword was forged for you, I made it from the core of a meteor that fell here thousands of years ago."

"You flatter me, princess," he said. She thought he looked to be smiling at a joke only he knew. "I'll put them to good use."

"See that you do, my faithful black knight," she replied.

 **END CHAPTER 2**


	3. Plots

_**Plots  
**_

* * *

"I've good news, my princess," Flame King said, he knelt and held out a piece of parchment. Peppermint Butler carefully took it from the fire elemental, and unraveled it.

"It says that Count Magmus, lord of Volcano Keep, defender of the Western Pass, says that he will swear allegiance to the true Flame King and pledge his forces to help him regain the throne," he read. He narrowed his eyes in thought, something sounded off about this. "Princess, something about this doesn't sound-"

"Very good, the sooner we get the Fire Kingdom under capable hands, the sooner the Lich will be stopped," she said. For the first time since the dreams had began, PB felt like everything would be alright. "Once Slicer returns with the Marauders we can begin the next phase of my plan."

Peppermint Butler raised an eyebrow, he'd no idea there was a next phase, or even a plan. His thought went back to the news of Tree Trunks orchard being destroyed, and a sliver of doubt entered his mind.

"Princess, perhaps we should open negotiations with Flame Princess. Surely if we explain what's happening she would gladly-" he was cut off by the Flame King.

"Phoebe will never lend her strength to us, sure, she'll smile and say yes, but; when its time to act she'll turn on you quick as a Fire Wolf," he said. "If we let her march an army down into the Candy Kingdom, who knows what they'll do. she's a young girl not well versed in the art of war. Her army will take to burning and pillaging the first chance they get!"

The way the Flame King smiled made the little peppermint nervous.

"Surely it won't come to that," he said, turning to face Princess Bubblegum. "We should send Finn to take a message to-"

"No, Peps. Flame King is right, there are too many variables for us to act accordingly," she said. "Phoebe is too hotheaded and prone to bouts of anger, I don't want to think we could happen if she snaps and her army attacks us."

He sighed in defeat.

"What would you have me do, princess?" he asked.

"Write back to Count Magmus, inform him that he has the Candy Kingdom's full support in whatever action he sees fit to help Flame King regain his throne."

"As you say, Princess Bubblegum," he replied. As he made his way to write the response he thought about what Flame King had said about girls and war. "We've never had a real war, i'm afraid Princess Bubblegum doesn't see what she's getting into."

* * *

"She did what?!" Cinnamon Bun flinched at his princess's shout. Despite the flame shield he could feel his skin begin to become clammy with sweat. The fire elemental glared down at him.

Cinnamon Bun gulped, and carefully planned out his next words.

"Um…. Princess Bubblegum…. She…. She," he began to stammer despite himself, stumbling fearfully over his words. Flame Princess's fiery mane began growing larger and more fierce looking with each passing second. "She…. Let your father into the Candy Kingdom."

"Is that all?" she asked. Cinnamon Bun felt like he was going to poop himself when Flame Princess stood and slowly began to descend the throne. "Well?"

"She…. She also….. maybe….. made him master of war," he said, trying to quietly mumble the last part, unfortunately, he wasn't quiet enough.

Flame Princess began to shriek in rage, her earsplitting cry filling the room.

"That bitch! What gives her the right to offer MY father place in her kingdom, without my consent?" she asked, grabbing Cinnamon Bun by the front of his shirt and lifting him off the floor. "This will not stand, send a letter and inform Princess Bubblegum that she has 3 days to return my father to me, or I will march my army to her doorstep and take him by force."

"Perhaps I can be of assistance, princess," Flame Princess dropped CB in surprise at the new voice. The two looked to see a fat fire elemental dressed in flowing robes. "I shall send a few of my best men to a peaceful alternative, if it please you."

Cinnamon Bun raised an eyebrow. He recognized the new comer as Count Magmus, the fire elemental that angrily stormed out of the palace several days before.

"What peaceful alternative?" CB asked.

Count Magmus smiled.

"I'll offer Princess Bubblegum a deal, she returns your father, and the Fire Kingdom closes it borders," he said. "With the borders open, we can't have an army in case we were to be invaded for fear the other rulers march on the Fire Kingdom. With the borders closed we are free to do as we will without fear of anything."

Flame Princess nodded, that was true. Without an army the Fire Kingdom was vulnerable if attacked. But; on the other hand closing the borders would undo all the hard work she'd achieved by going out in Ooo. There was really only one thing to do.

"Send a few men to ask her to return my father, and keep our borders open," she said. "That will be all, come Cinnamon Bun."

"Very mature of you, princess," CB said. They began climbing the steps that lead up to FP's private chambers, the pastry knight was following behind a step or two.

"You think so?" she asked, smiling despite the growing knot in her stomach. "I feel like there's something going on, you know?"

"What do you mean, princess?" he asked.

"I mean, its like we're on the outside of something bigger," she replied, as they entered her chambers CB shut the door to allow Phoebe to remove her armor. "Why would Bubblegum let my dad into the Candy Kingdom, and make him her Master of War. What would she need that for?"

"Maybe she's planning for the future," Cinnamon Bun said, keeping his back to the princess. "She's always planning stuff in case of emergencies."

"Yeah, probably," Phoebe replied, pulling on her pajamas. "Still, keep our spies on the Candy Kingdom."

* * *

"Hurry up!" Maja hissed. In the distance she could see the Ice King through the window of his ice castle. Behind her she could hear Tiffany tramping through the almost waist deep snow, she carried him all the way from the Candy Kingdom, but; the kid was heavier than she expected and she was forced to drop him once they made it to their destination. "You remember what you have to do?"

"Wait for you to distract Ice King then I steal the books from his library," he replied. Bubblegum had written down exactly what he needed to do to find the library, and the list of books to take. "So, how do we get in?"

Maja's hand began to crackle with dark energy, and after concentrating it into an orb she hurled it at the base of the castle. All the collected ice and snow that had hidden and froze the entrance solid was quickly melted away.

"Get up there and wait til I make my move," Maja ordered. She flew up and hovered below the window. Reaching into her bag she pulled out a plastic tiara. After placing it on her head the sky witch cast a quick spell that made her shirt shrink several sizes, making her breasts more impressive. Peeking through the window she saw the Ice King was fast at work writing something.

Back down on the ground she saw Tiffany head inside. She took a deep breath, and fought back the urge to vomit, before floating up and in the window.

"Hey there, Ice King," she said, leaning against the wall. The ice wizard looked up in surprise.

"Who the- well hello!" he said, a blush creeping across his face. "And just who are you my little princess?"

Maja fought back a groan of annoyance as the old man came closer. He propped himself beside her and winked. She took a deep breath and mentally counted to 5 before she spoke.

"I heard you kidnap princesses, and I thought, why hasn't he kidnapped me? I'm a princess and I happen have a thing for old men that live with penguins," she said, running her hand down the side of his face. "But; then I thought why wait to get kidnapped, when I can just go get him myself."

The Ice King blushed again, was this really happening to him? A princess actually wanting him. It was too good to be true, but; who was he to look a gift penguin in the mouth?

Out of the corner of her eye, Maja saw Tiffany poke his head around the corner. Thinking fast, she quickly grabbed Ice King by the collar and pulled him into a kiss. The smell of old cheese and rotting fish assaulted her nose, fighting back the urge to gag the sky witch pushed the old wizard backwards. Unfortunately, the sudden shove backwards sent the Ice King off balance, and as he went down his desperate struggle to stay upright caused him to grab a hold of the woman in front of him.

Tiffany chuckled at the sight of Maja and Ice King crashing to the floor. Quickly running across the room, the green boy descended the step and pushed the desk out of the way to reveal a hole. Upstairs he could hear the Ice King and Maja tumbling around.

"Hey, take it easy baby we got all- ow!" Tiffany laughed as something was smashed. Heading inside he came out into a large library. Shelves and shelves of books were everywhere.

"How do I find these stupid books in here?" he mumbled.

"Wank," he jumped slightly as a penguin pushed past him.

"Hey! Can you help me find these books?" he asked, grabbing the penguin and turning it around.

The penguin looked at the list, and Tiffany wasn't sure if it was actually reading it or not.

"Wank?" it called.

Tiffany began digging in his pockets.

"All I got is a few quarters I placed on the train tracks," he said. The penguin waddled off, and within minutes, returned carrying several books. "All right! Thanks, here you go."

Handing over the smashed quarters, Tiffany grabbed the books and headed back the way he came. Soon Jake would be his friend forever. Upstairs all the noise had ceased. Taking the steps 2 at a time, Tiffany entered the main room just in time to see Maja drop what remained of a lamp onto the ground. The Ice King was unconscious, a large gash on the top of his head was oozing blue blood.

"You get all the books?" she asked. She read the covers of each one as the boy handed them over. Daemon Rituals, Black Magic and its Many Uses, Bestiary Horrific, Layer of The Nightosphere, and finally The Lich Compendium. "Good, lets head back."

* * *

"May I speak with you for a moment, my princess?" Bubblegum looked up from the book she'd been reading to see Ricardio. She been combing it to see if there was anyway to trap the Lich. Hopefully they could catch it before it reached the giants.

"Of course, what is it?" she asked.

The heart came closer and sat down opposite her and smiled.

"Well, princess, I was thinking about our defenses," he said, pouring himself a cup of tea. "The Banana Guards are, shall we say, not very capable. I was wondering if you would allow me access to your lab so that I can make you better guards to protect the Candy Kingdom if the Lich attacks with giants."

He had a point, she hated to admit. She loved her banana guards, but; they were pretty stupid. If they were attacked, she doubted that they could do much in a fight, remembering all the times the Ice King was allowed to just stroll right into the palace.

"Okay Ricardio, you can have access to my lab," she said. "But; I don't want to replace the Banana Guards, create a small force for me and we'll try them out and see how they do, understand?"

The heart nodded, before finishing his tea.

"Splendid princess," he said, hopping down, he looked at the cover of her book and smiled. "Gallmadian, eh? He knew a lot about monsters, but; upon the Lich he was severely under informed."

"Unfortunately you're right," she replied. "Until Maja and Tiffany return with those books I sent them after he's all I have to go on."

"Until tomorrow, Princess," he said, bowing. As he turned and started walking away, a thought occurred to her.

"You never told me what you wanted," she said. He turned to look back at her. "I offered all of you something, Sir Slicer asked to be made a knight in my service, Flame King his kingdom back, Maja access the Crystal Eye, King of Ooo and Toronto both just wanted gold, Tiffany wants Jake as his friend, and Stevie wants Jake to print his letters. What is it you want from me, Ricardio?"

For a, no pun intended, heartbeat, he hesitated. A surprised look came across his tiny face, before being replaced with a calm cool smile.

"I haven't made up my mind yet," he replied. "Goodnight, princess."

When she was left alone, Bonnie began to think.

What if the Lich didn't head for the giants first, surely he could but; that was too direct. They would know he was coming with his army so that meant he couldn't capture the other races after taking the giants first.

What if he was saving the giants for last.

 **END CHAPTER 3**


	4. Tipping Point

_**TIPPING POINT**_

* * *

The 3 fire knights knelt before the throne. Bubblegum looked down at them, her face an emotionless mask. Beside her, Sir Slicer, newly returned from the west, stood with his thumbs hooked through his sword belt. On the other side, Flame King looked down at them, a wolfish snarl on his face.

"Her highness, the Flame Queen, requests the return of her father, the former Flame-"

The elemental was cut off by Flame King.

"I am still the Flame King," he said. "You'd best remember that, boy."

Bubblegum held up a hand for silence.

"Regardless of titles, I cannot return him as he is his own person," she said. "I offered him a place in my court as I saw in him a willpower for the greater good of all Ooo. He is no captive to be sent here or there by anyone's command."

The three knights stood.

"Our queen has ordered-" one began.

"You are in the CANDY Kingdom, not the FIRE Kingdom. Her words have no power here," standing up she made her way towards the rear exit of the throne room. "That will be all, Flame King will show you to your quarters."

Sir Slicer trailed behind her, a cocky swagger to his walk.

"You're a real woman," he said, chuckling. "Made those 3 look like right fools, my lady."

she smiled, despite herself.

"It wasn't that hard to do," she replied. "Come, tell me about all of the Marauders you've brought me."

* * *

Peppermint Butler was brought out of his daydream by the shrill ringing of the phone.

"Hello, Candy Kingdom this is Peppermint Butler," he said.

"Peps, it's Finn, listen something terrible has happened," Finn sounded tired and his voice was rough and sounded ready to break. "Tree Trunks and Mr. Pig they were….. murdered."

"Yes, the princess has already been informed of the tragedy," he replied, absentmindedly twirling the phone cord around his finger. "Have no fear, master Finn, she is doing everything in her power to catch the Lich and have him answer for his crimes."

The silence on the other end was slightly disturbing.

"What are you talking about?" Finn asked. "Tree Trunks and Mr. Pig were murdered by Toronto and a couple others, they burned the house and the orchard down!"

Peppermint Butler placed his hand over the receiver, and carefully looked around before speaking.

"I expected as much from those rogues," he whispered. "Listen Finn, you have to get here immediately. The princess has begun employing villains…. Villains!"

"Really? Why?" Finn asked.

"She thinks the Lich will-" he stopped talking as several servants walked by. "- She's been having terrible nightmares for months, she thinks having the villains on her side will reduce the Lich's army."

"That sounds bananas!" Finn exclaimed. In the background Peps could hear Finn relaying the news to Jake.

"Yes, she's made Slicer captain of the guard and put him at the head of a Marauder army, Maja's pouring over a bunch of old black magic books, Toronto's dead, King of Ooo just sits around drinking all day, who knows what Ricardio's doing in that lab, while Tiffany and that angry squirrel just seem to goof off," he said. "Flame King is up to something, I don't know what but- uh oh, gotta go!"

He slammed the phone down just as Flame King walked by, followed by the 3 flame knights.

Finn hung the phone up, and looked at Jake.

"This is bad," he said. "Let's get Sweet Pea to Marcy's and then head over to the Candy Kingdom, PB's really flipped her lid this time."

Jake looked to where the former Lich was curled up asleep on the couch, clutching BMO and NEPTR to his chest like stuffed animals.

"I don't think he's in any shape to be walking anywhere," Jake replied. "Maybe we should have Marcy come pick him up."

within the hour, Finn spotted a large black shape flying through the sky, upon closer inspection he could make out Marceline in her large bat form carrying a large beach umbrella to hide from the sun.

"Hey, weenies," she said, transforming back to her human form as she descended to the ground. She planted the umbrella in the ground and leaned against it. "So, you really think Bonnie's gone off the deep end?"

Finn shrugged his shoulders.

"Peps made it sound like she's trying to prevent something by gathering allies," he said. "Though, the first thing she did was burn down Tree Trunks orchard."

the vampire nodded.

"That does sound bad, but; i've known Bonnie a looooong time," she said. "She doesn't just do something out of nowhere, she has to have a pretty good reason."

"What reason is good enough for MURDERING two people?!" he exclaimed.

Marceline fought the urge to roll her eyes.

"Finn, have you ever heard of kill 1 to save millions?" she asked, standing up straight. "Yes, of course its sad that two of our friends were killed, but; what are those 2 little lives against the whole of Ooo?"

Finn's face began to grow red as he began to grit his teeth.

"How…. How can…." he stammered, his whole body began shaking, veins began sticking out on his neck and temple. "HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT! THEY WERE OUR FRIENDS MARCY! OUR FRIENDS!"

"NO YOU DON'T GET IT!" she roared. Growing in size until she towered over the human. "PEOPLE WILL DIE! EVERYONE IN OOO WILL DIE AND THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT!"

"SO I'M JUST SUPPOSED TO ABANDON THEM TO THEIR FATE?" he retorted, stomping forward until he was face to chest with the hulking vampire. "I'M SUPPOSED TO JUST LET BUBBLEGUM'S GOONS RAMPAGE ALL OVER WITHOUT DOING ANYTHING?!"

Marceline roared, completely shifting into her bat form.

"YOU KNOW WHAT? SCREW THIS! YOU WANT MY HELP SO BAD, FINN?" she asked, launching herself up into the sky, her umbrella forgotten. Steam was slowly beginning to crawl off of her body. "THEN COME TO THE CANDY KINGDOM AND BEG FOR IT!"

She shot off into a black blur towards the Candy Kingdom, vanishing within seconds. Jake shuffled his feet nervously as he watched Finn, still shaking with rage.

"I'm….. I'm gonna go call Lady to come get Sweet Pea," he said, quickly ducking inside.

* * *

Bubblegum took a sip of her tea and sighed contently. Slicer had told her that all the Marauders would be at the palace by nightfall, and that they had chosen one chieftain to speak for all of them. She wondered if she should write to Lemongrab and have his forces guard the western pass until the Marauders could be mobilized.

"Peps, take a letter," she said. The peppermint immediately seemed to materialize a pen and paper out of thin air. "Please inform my dearly beloved son Lemongrab, underline all three words please, that I request his forces to take up guarding the western pass and keep it blocked until such time as the Marauders can arrive and safely pass through."

Peppermint Butler quickly scribbled down the message, carefully underlining dearly, beloved, and son, for emphasis, before rolling it up and sealing it with the royal symbol.

"Permission to speak freely, princess?" he asked. His beloved princess looked down at him and smiled.

"Of course," she replied, setting down her tea cup.

The history of what was to come next tells up everything that follows could have almost been averted, all the death and destruction would have never happened were it not for one single moment.

The window to Bonnie's bedroom slammed open violently, as a large black and hairy shape forced its way in. Bubblegum didn't flinch, or even blink as the monstrous bat began to shrink and change until all that remained was a very flustered, and angry vampire.

"Hello, Marceline," she said calmly, placing her hands in her lap. "Give us a minute, please Peps."

Peppermint Butler nodded reluctantly, before quickly making his exit. Standing up, PB made her way over to where her vampire friend was pacing, and angrily muttering to herself.

"Something bothering you?" she asked, gently prodding her friend. "You wanna sit and talk about it?"

"That stupid weenie, Finn!" Marceline exclaimed, whirling around to look at Bonnie, practically foaming at the mouth. "How dare he! Ooh! I don't even know where-"

Her next few words were cut short, as soft pink lips gently enveloped her own. Marceline her her spine tingle as a pair of soft hands began to gently massage the back of her head and pull her closer. She gave a low moan before reaching out and pulling the princess to her.

After what seemed like an eternity, they pulled apart.

"Feel better," Bonnie whispered, leaning in slowly.

Marceline whimpered, a fire beginning to burn in her belly.

"Yes," she replied softly, bringing her lips against PB's again.

When they broke apart, Bubblegum leaned in and whispered something that made Marcy's legs go weak.

"Come to bed," she whispered, gently pulling the vampire queen towards the large bed.

* * *

They dressed in silence, both were tired, but; relaxed. outside the window, Marceline could see what looked like thousands of fireflies appearing in the distance. As she wondered what they could be, a pair of soft hands pulled her back into PB.

"Feel better?" she asked, softly nuzzling the vampire's neck.

Outside the door the sounds of running feet could be heard, occasionally punctuated by a muffled shout. A scream of mortal pain cut through the air like a knife. The two broke apart and looked towards the door. Seconds felt like an eternity. The door sagged in violently as something was slammed against it, splitting it almost down the middle with a loud crack.

Another round crash almost exploded the door as the limp body of Peppermint Butler was hurled through it. The tiny candy person landed on his stomach and moaned weakly, he barely was able to roll over onto his back before one of the fire knights came through the gaping opening and hurled a stream of fire at the prone servant.

"For the Lich!" he exclaimed.

Peppermint Butler gave out a shrill sobbing shriek as the fire quickly began to eat away and melt his body. As he began turning to a sickly red and white mush he managed to cry out one final time.

"Forgive me, princess!" he shrieked, half his body already gone and the flames slowly crawling up to his head. "I've failed you again!"

"Peppermint Butler!" she exclaimed. The princess tried to run to her fallen friend, already reduced to a puddle, but; was shoved aside and Marceline leaped toward the fire elemental.

She ducked another blast of heat, and slashed him across the midsection with her claws. Marceline hissed in pain as the heat from the flame knight's armor and body burned her claws. Before she could strike again, a sword erupted from the fiery being's chest.

He gave a strangled cry and collapsed onto the floor, behind him, Sir Slicer pulled his sword free and wiped the blade clean on the fallen knight's surcoat. The fire knight groaned, and rolled over onto his back, and began clutching his chest.

"Why?" Bonnie asked, her voice sounding small and weak.

The fire elemental coughed violently and smirked, a thin trickle of fiery blood began slipping from the corner of his mouth.

"Why?….. the Lich…. He has all the west," he said, trying to keep his voice from breaking. "The…. The Housies…. Fluffy people….. Giants and Goblins…. Even my kingdom…."

he began to laugh, a high rasping chortle that broke off into ragging coughing.

"You…. You are all…." his flames began to weaken. "….. Doomed."

Bubblegum looked down at the puddle that had once been her faithful and loyal butler for all her life. She slipped down to her knees and began to cry.

"We got the other two, my princess," Slicer said, stepping around the dead fire knight. "They managed to kill a few banana guards before King of Ooo and I could finish them."

"How many?" she whispered, looking up at the knight, tears streaking down her face.

"4 or 5," he said, looking back at the door. "1 of them was still alive though, but; I don't know if he'll last."

She wiped her tears away, and stood up, Marceline looked at her, a worried expression on her face.

"Are the Marauders here?" she asked, looking at him, her face now an emotionless mask.

"Aye, they are," he said. "The chieftain's waiting for you, in the throne room."

"Good," she said, walking towards the door.

Marceline followed behind nervously.

The Marauder Chieftain was a large and burly warrior with a bushy blonde head and a large battle ax. He smelled like he hadn't bathed in months, or ever in his life. He was filthy, dressed in ragged animal skins and bits and pieces of rusted armor.

"We will fight for you," he said, showing off his broken and blackened teeth.

"Swear it," Bubblegum said, looking down at him from her throne. Beside her, Marcy watched on, trying to keep her face neutral.

The Marauder drew a dagger from his belt and effortlessly sliced his palm open before clenching it into a fist, sending a splash of red onto the white floor.

"We will die for Bubblegum!" he said.

Marceline felt a rock drop into her stomach as she watched PB stroll through the gate of the Candy Kingdom and step into the center of the Marauder army. They were 40,000 strong, all were large and intimidating warriors dressed in all manner of animal skins and ruined armor. They carried swords and spears and axes, a few held up heavy spiked war hammers.

"The Lich has taken the west," she said, her voice echoing all around her. "All the people are now slaves to his will and will stop at nothing to wipe out everyone. You will show no mercy, for you will receive none from them."

"Murderers!" one of them shouted, several more roared in agreement.

"Burn every village!" she exclaimed. "Leave no one alive!"

Marceline watched as the ragged army began chanting together as they marched off into the darkness, Sir Slicer at the head on a great black stallion. When they were all out of sight, only the faint light from their torches remaining in the distance, she flew down to her friend.

"Are you okay?" she asked, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder.

"Yes, come we have much to do," she said, taking Marcy's hand in hers and began leading her back towards the palace. "I want to see these new guards Ricardio has made for our protection."

 **END CHAPTER 4**


	5. Demonstration

**Demonstration**

* * *

The laboratory was pitch black, Marceline wrinkled her nose at the smells of oil and metal that seemed to fill the room. Ricardio had met them in the throne room, his grease stained apron leaving a mess on the carpet.

"They are ready, my princess," he said, bowing. He led them, not to PB's lab, but deep down into the bowls of the castle, down into an area that was so overgrown with cobwebs and rats that the vampire was sure no one had been down here for at least a few hundred years. "I decided that the fastest and more productive was to improve on a former model."

The light snapping on made Marceline raise her hand to block the sudden brightness. Beside her, she heard Bubblegum gasp in surprise.

"Amazing! Truly amazing!" she exclaimed.

They were tall, with long rectangular bodies made of black steel. The arms and legs were thick corded wires that looked to be one solid piece of metal, but; upon closer inspection she saw that they were made of several cable bunched together ending in large clawed hands and feet. The heads were square, with glowing red eyes that made Marceline shiver, as if she were being sized up, unlike the Rattleballs, these robots had a large silver grill for a mouth.

"I'm most proud of the arms and legs," Ricardio said. "The cables are high tension steel mixed with titanium to allow more lightweight maneuverability while also being its own separate part will prevent loss of movement if one of them is damaged."

Bubblegum nodded, moving closer she examined one of the robots closer, running her hand across its large chest.

"How do they fare in combat?" PB asked.

Ricardio's smile made the vampire queen uncomfortable.

The yard was packed with candy people all jostling for a view. Up on the ramparts, Bubblegum was seated with Marceline standing beside her under an umbrella held by one of the Banana Guards. On the opposite side, Ricardio sat on a plastic chair. Down in the middle of the yard 3 of Ricardio's creations stood opposite of 3 Rattleballs.

Marceline could see that the Rattleballs weren't the one that had taught Finn swordsmanship, no, these looked to have been rebuilt and were patch worked together. When Bubblegum raised her hand, it began.

The Rattleballs drew their sabers and charged. The Battlebots, that had been what Ricardio has called them, wasn't it? didn't move an inch as their opponents came closer and closer with each passing second. Just as the first sword strokes were to fall, one of of the Battlebots raised its arms and two large streams of fire surged forth.

Two of the Rattleballs leaped free, barely escaping the torrent, the middle one was not so lucky. A high metallic scream began filling the air as it ran around, trying in vain to put the fire out. Mercifully, one of its compatriots finished him with a quick slash, splitting him down the middle.

"Impressive," PB muttered, clapping softly. "What do you think, Marceline?"

Something in her told Marceline that this didn't seem fair. The Rattleballs only had swords while who knew what the other Battlebots had up their sleeves.

As if to answer her own question, one of the Battlebots charged forward, kicking one of the Rattleballs away. In a heartbeat, two long blades popped out from each of the Battlebot's wrists. In an instant, the fist swipe took off the Rattleball's sword arm and tore through it's body. The second removed its head in one quick strike.

"This isn't fair!" Marceline said, a knot grew in her stomach as PB turned to look at her.

"Its not supposed to be," she replied, sounding as if she were talking to a child. "How can we gauge their abilities if their victims put up a fight?"

The last remaining Rattleballs was shaking, Marceline could see that his nerve had broken. The Battlebots were moving in to surround him, preventing his escape. The vampire queen saw something flash across the Rattleballs' face, she couldn't tell if it was pure fear or defeat.

The final Battlebot ended it, two long coil shot out from each wrist and quickly wrapped around the Rattleballs like two silver pythons. Marceline covered her ears as the sounds of metal scraping and crushing metal was mixed with the screams from the dying robot.

"Mother! Help me-" it was cut off by the cables retracting, pulling him apart with ease. When it was over, Marceline realized that the crowd had grown silent. All around them she could see Candy people, mouths agape it horror, tears streaming down their faces.

Princess Bubblegum stood and began to applaud, the sound seemed to be deafening across the quiet yard.

"Wunderbar, simply wunderbar," she said. Down below the Battlebots all bowed to her. "Truly you are everything Ricardio said you were."

Out in the crowd, Marceline spied movement. Within seconds another Rattleballs pushed his way through the throngs of Candy people.

"Princess, please allow me to try my sword against them," he said, stepping into the yard. "If they are truly worthy of protecting you, then I will stand no chance."

Marceline noticed that the Rattleballs was wearing a pink sash across his body, and he looked to be in much better condition than the poor others that had been destroyed.

PB rolled her eyes at him, and snorted.

"As you will," she said, turning away she began heading back towards the castle. "Come along, Marceline, I've had my chef prepare a delicious red tea I want you to try."

The vampire swallowed the lump in her throat and looked down to see the Battlebots beginning to surround the lone Rattleballs. The gumball robot calmly drew his saber and took a stance.

"Wait, I want to watch this," Marceline said, grabbing the princess by the wrist. "Please, lets just watch. Even if he loses it'll mean a lot for him that you watched."

To her surprise, PB groaned in annoyance. Turning back around, the princess sat down and nodded.

"Very well Rattleballs," she said, sounding bored.

Rattleballs spun and quickly blocked a slash from Blade, before backing away and parrying each follow up strike with almost a lazy ease. Ducking a wild strike, Rattleballs slipped under the Battlebot's arm, slicing its side open as he went with a loud metallic scream.

Marceline felt her heart pounding in her chest as Rattleballs rolled to avoid the coiling whips of the Constrictor, slicing through one of the cables. The gumball robot leaped over the Battlebot to escape Blade as it pursued after him, slashing wildly it tore apart the Constrictor's whips and drove its blades through it's compatriots head and body.

Marceline looked over to see Bonnie lazily sipping her tea, she began to giggle at something Ricardio said. The vampire felt jealousy well up inside her, as well as anger that the Candy Kingdom monarch was ignoring one of her best warriors fighting for his life.

Below, Rattleballs retrieved one of the fallen sabers, and stood ready as Blade finished ripping his weapons free from Constrictor's destroyed body. Across from them, Burner was standing still, as if waiting for something to come into it's range.

"He's putting up a pretty good fight," Marceline said, nudging PB with her elbow.

"What? Yeah sure, that's nice," she said distractedly.

Rattleballs, not wasting time, charged towards the immobile Burner, swords raised. At the last second, he leaped, just as the Battlebot raised his arms and released a massive torrent of flame that engulfed Blade as it charged aster the smaller robot.

Marceline whooped as Rattleballs sliced through Burner's arms at the elbow as it turned to face him. The stump began spurting out a thick and foul smelling fluid. Rattleballs kicked the arm less Battlebot back into the still mobile Blade, causing it to impale Burner on its weapons.

"Now it ends," Marceline heard Rattleballs say. The gumball robot leaped forward, both swords raised before him. In an instant he was on the other side of them, and almost a second after the two Battlebots were lying in a pile of pieces.

The cheering crowd drew the princess's attention. Marceline saw her look of surprise quickly change to anger. The color of her face went from pink to a bright and angry red. Without a word she jumped to her feet and stormed off, behind Ricardio had to jog to keep up with her.

Floating down to the ring, Marceline gave the Battlebot remains a wide berth as she landed beside Rattleballs.

"Good job," she said, patting on him on the shoulder. "You made those things look like windup toys."

The robot didn't answer her right away, instead his gaze was on the retreating form of Princess Bubblegum.

"I had hoped time would make her less bloodthirsty," he said, looking down at the fallen remains of his comrades. "She has allowed herself to be manipulated and lied to yet she realizes nothing."

Marceline raised an eyebrow.

"How can you be so sure?" she asked, fear beginning to slip into her mind.

"She surrounds herself with criminals and sycophants all wanting something," he replied. "Her fears of what may or may not be have driven her to things she would abhor were she of a right mind. I fear for her."

Marceline nodded absentmindedly. Rattleballs looked at her.

"I will flee," he said. "I cannot raise my sword against her, even now, as she is still my princess."

"What will you do?" she asked, as he turned and began walking away.

"I will head west, to try and save as many people as I can from her misguided wrath," Rattleballs said. "Tell me, vampire, when the time comes and the war is to be fought, where you will find yourself against kith and kin. What will you do?"

She opened her mouth to speak, but; her voice broke.

"Yes," he said. "That is what I expected."

In a flash, he was gone.

Marceline nervously rubbed her arm as she approached the door to Ricardio's lab. Inside she could hear Bonnie screaming and throwing things around.

"_Made them look like fools!" she screamed, something heavy fell over. "-Promised me soldiers- useless pieces of shit- make more- better!"

Marceline caught snippets and snatches of words in between the sounds of PB's tantrum. She quickly went invisible as the door slammed open. Bubblegum's hair was a mess, strands were hanging in her face, and her crown was askew.

The vampire floated up towards the ceiling as Bubblegum stalked off, angrily muttering to herself.

* * *

The Banana Guards were all talking excitedly as they were lining up to enter the banquet hall. At the front, Colonel Candy Corn was holding up his hand for silence.

"All right, listen up men," he said. "The princess has decided that we are to be rewarded for all our years of loyal service. And, with that I give you your reward!"

He pushed open the doors to reveal the banquet hall filled with tables upon tables filled with food. Immediately, the Banana Guards began to swarm in, and stuff their faces. Colonel Candy Corn even joined in, although, he chose to actually grab a plate and fill it up first.

Banana Guard #16 felt his stomach begin to cramp up. He put the duck leg he had intended to begin eating and quickly ran off to find the closest bathroom.

Amid the feasting, Princess Bubblegum entered and sat at the head of the feasting table.

"A toast!" she called, raising her cup. "To the Candy Kingdom!"

"The Candy Kingdom!" the Banana Guards boomed. Not of them noticed that Bubblegum didn't take a drink.

She leaned back in her chair, and waited. It started within a minute or so, the first few began to cough, and rub their throats. Within 2 more minutes more and more of them began to cough. Soon the hall was filled with the sounds of pained coughing and crashing as the Banana Guards began stumbling around, clawing at their throats.

She watched as some tried to flee from the hall, only for others to stumble into them, sending them down into a pile that soon stopped moving. Colonel Candy Corn was crawling along the floor towards her. He managed to grab her ankle with one weak wrinkled hand before what remained of his life expired.

"Bonnie… what have you done?" PB looked up to see Marceline floating into the banquet hall, a hand clamped over her mouth and tears streaming down her cheeks.

Standing up, the princess made her way over to her friend, and held her.

"This isn't a world for them," she said, kissing at the corner of each eye. "They could never hope to survive what's to come. And, I would never ask them to die for me."

Marceline fought back a sob.

"What- what about me?" she asked, trying to keep from breaking down. "Am- am- I too- too-"

She finally began to wail, and buried her face into Bonnie's neck. PB rubbed her back.

"Ssh, your the most important," she whispered. "I'll never abandon you."

Around them, the Battlebots moved in and began carrying the dead out. Already the smell of burning wood began filling the palace as the massive pyres were ignited.

"I know you'll never leave or betray me," she whispered into Marceline's ear. "My Marceline."

 **END CHAPTER 5**


	6. Scheming

**Scheming**

* * *

Jake was struggling to think of something to say, Finn had finally had enough of waiting, as Jake had insisted on, to cool off at Marceline and PB. But; the arrival of Rattleballs had finally pushed the human over the edge. The gumball robot had stopped by and informed them that the Banana Guards were being replaced by robots designed and built by Ricardio.

"All but one of them has been terminated," he said. "#16 he said his name was, I helped him to escape the Candy Kingdom, though, I do not know where he went."

After that, Rattleballs vanished in a flash, leaving the two heroes alone. After a heated debate on what to do, Finn stormed off, leaving Jake with no other alternative but to follow after him.

"Finn, I really think you should calm down," Jake said. Ahead of him, Finn's whole body was shaking with barely controlled rage. The magic dog knew that it had done nothing but eat and eat at Finn for days. "If you storm in there screaming for blood, I don't think it will end very well for anybody."

Finn halted in his tracks, his whole body was quivering. Jake swallowed the lump in his throat as the boy turned to glare at him. His face was slowly turning from red to purple, veins had started popping out from his forehead and neck and began pulsing.

"THIS HAS TO STOP!" he screamed, seizing his friend roughly by the shoulders, Jake winced as the fingernails dug into his skin. "SHE'S GONE TOO FAR JAKE! NO MORE!"

Shoving the dog back as hard as he could, sending Jake falling to the ground, Finn turned and bolted. Jake sighed as he watched his brother speeding off towards the Candy Kingdom.

* * *

"Do you like it?" Bonnie asked, she moved up behind Marceline and pulled her back into a hug. "I had these made special, just for you, my lady."

Marceline did not know how to feel anymore, one the one hand she felt a sick revulsion at herself for things she had seen the past few days and stood by without getting involved, on the other she felt like she was safe and needed, like her presence was the one thing Bonnie needed to be happy.

"The dress is very lovely, thank you," she said, almost emotionless. The dress was a dark red satin that clung to her body like a second skin, Marceline could barely feel it. A silver chain inlaid with large rubies, they made her think of clots of blood, hung daintily around her throat. "You really shouldn't have."

PB giggled musically in her ear, planting a kiss on her cheek.

"I can't have you parading around like a child forever, can I?" she asked, teasing. "If you're to stay by my side you have to look the part. Here, now the crown."

The crown was breathtaking, almost completely weightless it was made of silver and ebony woven together into a circlet that rested comfortably on her brow, but; the centerpiece was a black bat carved from Obsidian with two rubies for eyes.

The reflection showed a girl that Marceline didn't recognize, a queen stared back at her. The door opening caught her attention. Both girls looked to see Tiffany poke his head in.

"Princess, Finn's outside screaming to be let in," he said. "Shall I send the Battlebots to chase him off?"

"No, let him in after we've make ready the throne room," she said, taking Marceline's hand in her own. "Let's go see what my champion wants of us."

Marceline was once again surprised to see that Bubblegum had taken the initiative and ordered a throne made for her. It was almost exactly like the one the princess had, save, for it was completely black. They barely had time to get comfortable before the door slammed open.

"Bubblegum!" Finn exclaimed. Marceline could see that the human was barely containing himself, his whole body was shaking. When he came closer she saw that he was grinding his teeth, his knuckles were white. "We need to talk."

Out of the corner of her eye, Marceline saw PB smile.

"Of course, Finn," she said, leaning forward slightly. "Will you take tea?"

"No, princess you need to stop! What you're doing is wrong!" he said. "Mr. Pig and Tree Trunks were murdered, and Rattleballs said you killed all the Banana Guards."

Princess Bubblegum nodded.

"Your right Finn," she replied, leaning back in her seat. "Necessary sacrifices for the long term greater good of Ooo."

Finn's look of anger melted away in shock and horror, Marceline felt her heart begin to ache as Bubblegum's words took their toll on Finn.

"Yes, what happened at the orchard was brutal, yet, it was a contained incident," she continued. "And yes, my Banana Guards were replaced, though I must admit with not much subtlety as I would have liked."

"Subtlety?" Finn asked. "You had them murdered!"

Marceline watched on in silence as Bonnie's left eye barely twitch, the only show of emotion.

"What is coming is not a world for them," PB replied. "As their mother, and princess, I had to make a decision. My choices were to either send them marching into the face of death or to give them a peaceful end, they went from this world with me near to them to offer comfort as they passed."

The vampire queen recalled one of the Banana Guards crying as he clawed his throat open, choking on his own blood.

'Was that better than facing an enemy?' Marceline wondered. She was snapped out of her thought by the last human.

"Marcy, how can you just sit there and listen to this?!" he asked, pointing a finger at her. "You saw all of it, how can you stand to be here?"

"Finn….. you don't understand," she said, how could she begin to explain herself to him, to explain the storm of emotions raging inside her. The fear, the anger, the confusion the…. The love.

"Understand?" he asked. "Understand! she's murdering people! And your just sitting there playing dress up!"

"That's enough, Finn," Bubblegum said, her voice hard and stern. "You are a child, unwise to the ways of war and sacrifice. You have given me many years of good service, so I shall be kind. Kneel and swear loyalty to the Candy Kingdom, and all these accusations will be forgiven."

"Nuts to that!" Finn screamed, he turned on his heels and ran for the door. "I quit!"

"Finn wait!" Marceline called, as she made to stand a soft, yet firm hand grabbed her by the forearm.

"Let him go," Bonnie said, shaking her head. "It's as I feared."

"What is?" she asked, her voice sounding weak and small.

"He has betrayed me," PB replied. "It seems that you are the only one I can trust. You, my Marceline, are the only one who truly understands."

'Am I?' she thought, she felt herself get heartsick at what had just transpired. Neither wanted to listen or to understand what the other was talking about. "What happens now?"

"We find a new champion," Bubblegum replied, clapping her hands. Immediately, Tiffany entered, followed by the squirrel. "Kneel, both of you."

She stood as the two before her dropped to one knee.

"In the name of Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum, I name you, Tiffany, and you, Stevie the squirrel. Champions of my Candy Kingdom," she said. "You will hence forth serve only I, your one true princess."

"We will serve only you," they said together, Marceline caught a snicker from each.

"Good, now go," she said, pointing. "Follow the traitor, Finn and report back on his movements."

* * *

"She had my emissaries EXECUTED?" Flame Princess exclaimed. Before the throne, Count Magmus knelt. "Are you sure of this?"

"Quite sure, your grace," he said. "My spies inform me that they were placed into lamps that were slowly filled with cold water."

Cinnamon Bun dared a look up at the throne to see his princess, a look of shock and horror on her face.

"I can't allow this to stand, I won't allow this to stand!" she exclaimed, slamming her fist on the arm of her throne. "Call my banners, we march on the Candy Kingdom by the end of the week!"

CB coughed.

"Princess, perhaps we should summon Finn, to open channels with-"

"Cinnamon Bun,"

"Yes, princess?" he asked.

"Send a message to the other kingdoms," she said. "Inform them that if they get involved on behalf of the Candy Kingdom, my army shall burn them to the ground!"

"With all due respect, my lady," Count Magmus said. "As we speak an army of 2000 Marauders is burning and pillaging this way through the West, perhaps we should deal with them first."

"The Marauders can dealt without too much effort," she said, waving a hand. "Send 3000 men to wipe this clan of savages out."

"Very wise, my lady," he replied, bowing. "To make doubly sure of their success I shall handpick the most loyal and true knights."

"Yes, I will have no traitors," she replied. "My father has too many spies in my army, I would not have him know of this."

"It will be done," he said, bowing again and quietly slipping from the room.

* * *

"How much longer must I wait here?" Maja cursed herself, why had he chosen now to appear of all times. Closing the grimoire, the witch turned to look into her mirror. It was a massive thing, ringed in steel hammered and molded into vicious looking spikes and inlaid with ancient runes of dark and terrible magic.

After several long seconds, the glass began to turned a dark crimson and a figure began to appear. The speaker was a giant of a creature, easily towering over Flame King if they were ever side by side. Thick coarse black hair covered its body, long supple legs ended in large, splintered goat hooves. Massive hands the size of Maja's head clenched and opened over and over, revealing claws like daggers.

The head was the worst thing out of all, atop the broad shoulders sat a great, and savage lion head jutting out from a wild bushy mane. Maja smiled, trying to remain calm in the face of the creature.

"The moon will not be full for a few more days, my sweet Zimbubu," she said, warily placing a slightly shaking hand on the glass, she could feel the heat emanating from the dark dimension. "Patience, you must have patience my love-"

A sudden, snarling roar caused her to jump back. She held her hands up in a weak defense, expecting to hear the shattering of the glass and for the lion demon to charge. But; it never came, instead, Zimbubu continued to roar, forcing the witch to cover her ears.

"I have waited long enough!" he roared, slamming a massive clawed fist against the glass so hard the entire mirror trembled. "I gave you powers beyond imagining and yet you still fail to free me! Was my faith in you misplaced, witch?"

"No, no it was not, I just need more time," she said, stepping closer to the mirror. "The specifics of the ritual are binding and need to be done during the full moon."

Zimbubu narrowed his eyes, Maja felt like he was staring into her soul.

"I want my freedom," he said, turning away. "Remember, in exchange for the powers I gave you, you swore to free me and become my bride. Or have you forgotten?"

"How could I forget? Being with you is all I ever wanted," she said, trying to keep her voice from breaking. "Soon, then you'll be free and we'll finally be together."

The lion demon looked back over his shoulder and smiled, it was an ugly, beastly thing.

"Yes, of course it is," he said, slowly, he began fading from sight. "Do not fail me, my bride."

When she was alone, Maja breathed a sigh of relief. She hated that creature with every fiber of her being. Soon the moon would be full and she would only have a full minutes to pull off the spell. Luckily, Zimbubu didn't know of her discovery of the grimoire that she'd stolen from the Ice King.

"Why do you tease him like that?" a new voice asked. In the door way a tall blue figure dressed in yellow leaned against the door frame. "He's not that stupid."

Maja smiled at Laser Wizard as he stepped into the room. She went to him and placed her head against his chest.

"He can't escape the mirror, and the spell will only free my soul," she said, reaching up and tenderly rubbing the wizard's cheek. "Once I have all of his demon power I can make you human again."

He let out a soft chuckle.

"Human again, I never thought I'd ever hear that," he replied. "Then, I can regain all the powers I've lost and take Wizard City by force. We, I mean."

Maja giggled giddily.

"Yes, together," she whispered, reaching up and pulling his mask down to reveal a mouth full of broken, jagged teeth. "Together forever, just you and me, my Rykar."

The kiss was sweet.

To Maja it tasted like freedom.

And victory.

 **END CHAPTER 6  
**


	7. Fooled

**Fooled**

* * *

'This is not where I belong,' Cinnamon Bun thought. He rode at the front of the soldiers as they marched through the kingdom towards the pass. Behind him came 2 dozen other Fire Wolf riders followed by 300 pikemen, over 2000 foot and several hundred archers. All around them the people were cheering and throwing petals at their feet as they marched. A sense of dread came over him as they passed the palace, up on the balcony Flame Princess waved to him and smiled. 'I should be here, with my princess.'

"Princess, I propose that the one to lead your forces to victory should be Cinnamon Bun," Count Magmus said. "Who better to lead the most loyal soldiers than the most loyal of knights."

"But; my place is here," Cinnamon Bun said, trying to keep calm, the thought of riding against the Marauders made a chill go down his spine. "You do me a great honor by suggesting I should lead the troops but-"

"I think that's a splendid idea," Flame Princess said, smiling down at him. "You'll do me and the Flame Kingdom proud, won't you CB?"

And with that, here he was. Jake 2 began to whine, the pastry rubbed his head.

"I don't like this either," he said. When they cleared the city, he sent his Fire Wolf riders scouting ahead, led by a handsome young fire knight named Marbrand, to screen the enemy's movements. The knight quickly proved to be a good choice. He returned to give a report as they entered the grasslands.

"The Marauders have already attacked the Housies, Slicer has split them up into raiding parties of no more than 400 each," he said, as he pointed out their positions on the map. "The closest force is only a few days ride from here, they look to be moving on the Giants."

"Good work, have the rest of your men follow the other raiding parties and keep detailed reports on everything they find," CB said. When they made camp for the night he set the men to digging ditches and planting pickets every hundred yards around the encampment. Inside his tent, Cinnamon Bun began writing a letter to Flame Princess, Jake 2 was snoozing beside his chair.

He had barely begun writing before one of his guards entered.

"Commander, Marbrand has returned, he says he has urgent news," he said. Cinnamon Bun had barely turned in his chair before the young fire knight quickly stormed in.

"Sir, one of my scouts reported a strong force of Goblins riding south towards the Giants," he said, he rolled out a map and pointed. "We're here, and the Goblins are following the river, here."

"What about the Marauders, Marbrand?" CB said. "We aren't chasing Goblins with death wishes."

Marbrand frowned.

"Unfortunately, my scouts trailing the other raiding parties haven't returned yet," he replied. "The one closest to us is also moving south through the forest, here. I have a feeling that their both heading for the Giants."

Cinnamon Bun nodded.

"It's possible, though I don't think we have much to fear from a few dozen Goblins," he replied, smiling. The fire knight didn't smile back. "What's wrong?"

"Goblin City is empty," he said.

* * *

When Finn and Jake slipped through the Western Pass, almost immediately they knew something was wrong. The land had been burned, the ground was a boggy mess from the massive horde marching all over, tearing up the soil. The hero had held onto a shred of hope that he and his brother could save people.

But; everywhere they went they found only death. The Fluffy people had been massacred, the streets were littered with the bodies of the dead, most were feathered with arrows, the unlucky ones had been hacked and speared to death. he'd wept at the sight of a mother clutching a bloody infant that had been almost sliced in half.

They hadn't been able to do anything for them, already the buzzards and the wolves had moved in, chasing them away wouldn't help, as they would only return later. They had moved on, traveling to almost exhaustion as they finally reached the Goblin city.

Jake covered covered his mouth, his eyes grew large and watery. Finn felt like he was going to throw up. From the walls of the city, the Goblin children hung. The larger ones had gone quick it seemed, a quick snap to break their necks. But the smaller one, they had ropes tied about their bodies. The Marauders had left them there to starve.

Inside the city, the only living thing they found was one old, half blind Goblin that eyed them fearfully, working his toothless mouth nervously.

"Where is everyone?" Finn asked, kneeling down in front of the Goblin.

"Gone," he spat. "They joined up with that band of savages, left their little ones to die, the cowards!"

Jake gave Finn a confused glance.

"Joined up?" Jake asked. "What, like an ultimatum?"

The Goblin let out a barking laugh.

"That knight leading those barbarians promised them gold," he said, looking down sadly. "The only thing he wanted in return was for us to kill our children, to prove we weren't craven, he said, a test of our ruthlessness."

"What about Whisper Dan?" Finn asked.

"They dragged him off his throne and had him pulled apart between their horses," he replied. "He was a good king, the best we ever had."

The old Goblin turned and began slowly limping off.

"I'm too old to do anything anymore," he said, looking back at them. "Do an old Goblin a favor won't you, boys?"

"Sure," Finn replied. "Just name it."

"Kill that bastard," he said. "Make him suffer."

"Oh, don't you worry about that," Finn said.

"What are you gonna do now?" Jake asked. The old Goblin smiled.

"Saved a half a bottle of Deadly Nightshade," he said, turning away. "Mixed with milk, you can barely taste the poison."

* * *

The screams of the dying mixed with the heavy thunks of axes cleaving through necks made a truly hellish morning. Cinnamon Bun bit down on his tongue to keep from screaming, the gash in his side was raw and tender, sending rockets of pain shooting through his body. He thanked Glob that Jake 2 had managed to fly off in time, hopefully he was at the palace by now.

They had chased the Marauders south, cutting around the forest to cut them off at the river. Unfortunately, they soon began to discover what happened to the missing scouts. They were all found either crucified to trees or completely dismembered.

By the third day, the Flame Kingdom troops were exhausted from the forced march Cinnamon Bun had ordered.

"Let them complain of being tired all they want," he told Marbrand. "If we can't stop 400 Marauders from crossing the river it will all be for nothing."

They had barely begun to dig ditches when a shout rang out. The Marauders had come screaming out of the forest like a hairy tidal wave. To Cinnamon Bun's horror, there seemed to be no end to them. When the Goblins had began crossing the river behind them, CB realized that they had been tricked.

All around him the Marauders were celebrating, they laughed and sang as they looted the dead. Trapped under several unlucky fire knights, Cinnamon Bun could only watch as the savages continued to torture Marbrand.

They lashed him to a crude stake and were wetting their daggers in an open cask of water, before wiping them along the Flame Wolf rider's face and naked body, slowly dragging them in wide arcs. The pastry knight cursed them for barbarians as they only laughed at the screams of their captive.

"Come on, pretty boy. where's that Cinnamon Bun?" one of them asked, as he dipped his dagger back into the water. "Out with it, you don't want us to give you a bath, do you?"

Marbrand only spit a wad of bloody phlegm in the Marauder's face.

"Still got some fight, huh?" he asked. Slowly, he began dragging the tip of his dagger across the flame elemental's chest, before flipping it over and going back across. "I gotta say, I was expecting more of a fight out of you guys. Looks like we both got duped!"

Cinnamon Bun cursed silently as the Marauders began to laugh. Mercifully they were interrupted by the arrival of Sir Slicer.

"Have you learned anything?" he asked.

"Sorry boss, he won't talk," the Marauder replied. "Want us to just finish him off?"

"No, leave him, it's going to rain soon. I want everyone ready to move within the hour," Slicer said, holding up a piece of paper. "The Princess has ordered up to return to the Candy Kingdom for new orders.."

"What about the Giants?" one of them asked. "Don't we need to wipe them out?"

Cinnamon Bun held his breath and tried to remain still as Slicer turned and began to scan the battlefield.

'Don't look at me don't look at me don't look at me!' he silently prayed, thankfully, Slicer turned back.

"The Giants will wait," he replied. "Besides, the Goblins will harry them night and day until they have no choice but to pursue them into our country where we can hunt them at our leisure."

"Heh, that sounds fun," One of them said. "Always wanted to hunt a Giant bitch with my dogs."

"Yes, that does sound like fun," Slicer replied, he moved off out of Cinnamon Bun's line of sight. "Lets get going!"

From under his fallen men, Cinnamon Bun sighed in relief as he was soon left alone.

And alive.

* * *

Finn began to scream to the sky as he and Jake finally reached the Housies. Already they knew that they were too late. They had seen the vultures circling since dawn that morning, and had pushed themselves to the brink of exhaustion to try and reach them in time.

What they found was unspeakable. The little house people were all dead, from the looks of it the Marauders had attacked under the cover of darkness. They looked like they had all been smashed by heavy war hammers, crushing their shells and spilling their guts out onto the ground.

"How can they do something like this?" Jake asked, looking around. "Even Why Wolves aren't this brutal."

"Help….. me…." a weak voice called. The two heroes quickly followed the cries of pain and soon came upon a sight that made them weep.

"Donny..." Finn mumbled.

The large grass ogre had been shot with almost a dozen arrows. He smiled weakly at them, blue green blood trickling from the corners of his mouth. All around him were the slain Marauders. Some of them had their heads completely smashed in while others looked to have their necks broken.

"Got a…. couple…." he groaned, wincing. "Housies….. any…. Left?"

Finn sniffled and shook his head.

"All gone," he replied, placing a hand on Donny's shoulder. "You tried, I'm grateful for that."

The grass ogre smiled weakly.

"I'm…. no hero," Donny said, grabbing Finn's hand and squeezing it weakly. "Not like you…."

"Don't say that, you did good," Jake said. "Is there anything we can do for you?"

After a long pause, Donny nodded.

"It hurts….. make it stop," he said. "Please….. make the hurting stop."

The two heroes looked between each other. Finn nodded sadly, and the grass blade slid into his hand.

"I'm sorry," he said. With a quick flick of his wrist the grass sword slid through Donny's throat and down to pierce his heart. The grass ogre shuddered briefly, then leaned back and was still. "Jake, what do we do now? Everywhere we've gone its been too late."

"Perhaps I can answer that," the two spun to see Rattleballs coming towards them. To their surprise, following behind him was a tall brown dog woman dressed in light silver armor, a massive battleaxe resting on her shoulder. "Rattleballs and….."

"Samantha!" Jake said, instantly recognizing the dog goddess from his time in Kee-Oth's pit. "What're you doing with Rattleballs?"

She smiled, and planted her battleaxe in the ground.

"The little toy promised me endless battle and glory if I followed him," she said, jerking her thumb towards Rattleballs. "So far we've fought Marauders after Marauders with no end to them. That is fine with me."

"We must hurry, the Marauders have already wiped out a platoon of Flame Kingdom soldiers sent against them and are now sweeping back this way towards the Candy Kingdom," he said. "The Goblins are still marching on the Giants, and if we force march through the night we might be able to make it there before them."

Finn nodded.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" he said. "Let's go!"

 **END CHAPTER 7**


	8. Memories

**Memories**

* * *

The going was slow and brutal. Cinnamon Bun's side was screaming in pain with every step sending lances of pain shooting through his body. The crude bandages he'd made by tearing strips from his cloak were crusted over by blood and pus. Behind him, Marbrand groaned as he bounced in the saddle.

The pastry knight had lain hidden for almost 4 hours, fear of being caught kept him from moving an inch and he was forced to listen to Marbrand screaming and pleading for someone to kill him. Finally, he could stand it no longer and scrabbled from under the bloated corpses of his men, preparing to feel a sword plunged through his back.

But; thank Grod they were alone. Among the dead and dying Cinnamon Bun looked around. They had almost been completely annihilated, the Goblins had attacked from the rear, drawing attention from the Marauders. That had been their greatest mistake.

'I should have sent Marbrand after the Goblins,' he thought, as he began bandaging his wound.

Luckily, Cinnamon Bun was able to catch a horse that had been scattered in the attack and returned to drink from the river. After carefully untying the wounded Fire Knight, CB found himself trying his best to treat the wounds of his comrade. The Marauders had cut his deep with their daggers soaked in water, deep enough and with too much water that it was pooling inside the wounds and making them hard to close.

"Kill me…. Kill me," Marbrand muttered, groaning loudly as Cinnamon Bun wrestled the wounded man into the saddle. Tearing more strips from his already tattered cloak, CB lashed Marbrand's hands and feet to the saddle horn and the stirrups to keep him from falling.

"We'll get home together, my friend," he said, trying to smile.

By nightfall the two had only gone less than a mile or so, stopping every few minutes to rest. Cinnamon Bun dared not return the way they had came, fear that the Marauders had taken that way ate at his mind.

"We'll take the long way," CB said, as he carefully helped Marbrand down from the saddle. "Cutting through the forest and pushing up towards the Breakfast Kingdom will take time, but; we'll be safer for it."

"We were tricked," Marbrand said, watching as Cinnamon Bun began building a fire. "Count Magmus lied… 40,000 not 2,000."

With that Marbrand slipped off to sleep.

"He did," CB muttered. "But why?"

* * *

The King of Ooo walked shakily into the throne room. His clothes were disheveled and covered with food and wine stains. His usually well kept hair was dirty and hanging around his face in messy strands clumped together. He reeked of wine and sweat, it was easy to see that he hadn't bathed in who knew how long.

"You summoned me, my princess?" his words were slurred, and rocked back and forth groggily.

To her credit, Marceline noticed the Bonnie didn't show any emotions.

"Yes, there's something I need of you," she said, leaning forward. PB placed her chin in her hands and smiled. "Something only the greatest hunter can achieve."

The King of Ooo's bloodshot eyes widened slightly, and he tried to stand tall and straight.

"Find the Lich," she said. Marceline cocked an eyebrow at that. "Hunt him down all across Ooo if you have to. Find him for me, and you'll have your reward."

The vampire queen looked down at the King of Ooo, as if by magic he had seemed to sober up within mere minutes. But; being ordered to hunt down the most evil creature alive would do that to anyone.

"…. Toronto?" he mumbled.

"That's right, Toronto," she replied. "The Lich murdered him, didn't he?"

The King of Ooo furrowed his brow, and looked away.

"The Lich….. murder…." he muttered softly, though not softly enough for Marceline's ears. "He was murdered by a golden sword."

"A sword of fire, yes?" PB asked. "It burned him alive, didn't it?"

Something passed over the King of Ooo's face then, a brief and quick flicker of anger and hate. But; just like that it was gone.

"Yes….. burned him alive," he said. He bowed, and quickly retreated from the hall.

"Did something about that seem odd to you?" Marceline asked, leaning over towards the princess. "A golden sword?"

"He's found comfort in wine," she replied. "Its a wonder he remembers anything that happened that night."

"What did happen that night?" Marceline asked, she reached out and grabbed PB's hand and squeezed it softly.

"Murder and darkness most foul," she said.

* * *

They took refuge in a rundown stable. Half the roof had caved in and only 2 of the stalls were still covered. After watering and wiping down the horse, Cinnamon Bun began to work on changing Marbrand's bandages.

"Just hang on," he said, as he wiped out the fire elemental's wounds with strips of his ruined cloak, trying to clean the lingering water from them. The knight's flames were getting weaker and weaker with each passing day, by now he was too weak to sit up and had to be thrown across the saddle. "We're only another day or so from the border, and then you'll get a nice long dip in a lava pool."

Marbrand only groaned weakly, his body was almost cool enough to touch without a flame shield. In the distance thunder began to rumble. Within the hour rain began to fall. The pastry knight carefully dragged the fire knight back into the corner of their stall, trying to keep him after from the rain that slowly began to run off into the stable.

"Look, shelter!" a voice cried. Cinnamon Bun's head snapped up. His heart began pounding like a drum as the sounds of several voice came closer and closer. Frantically, the pastry began to climb over the divide between the stalls. He landed with a thud, flat on his face. Dragging himself over to the discarded saddlebags, he began digging through them. "Looks like we get two stalls, nice!"

Cinnamon Bun felt a wave of fear go through him, what would happen if they were found. Would they be killed or taken prisoner. Neither option was good. Finally, his hand found what he needed. The Kukri knife was long and had a weighted head. The blade was well oiled and sharp, for a second, CB wondered what this knife was used for, then he remembered the Marauders that tortured Marbrand.

Taking a deep breath to calm his racing heart, the pastry carefully edged himself up to the stall door and listened. He thought of Flame Princess, back in her kingdom and surrounded by enemies.

'I love you,' he thought, and smiled sadly. She was just a child, and he a man grown. 'I've loved you from the first, my princess.'

With one final prayer, she shoved the stall door open and charged screaming, the knife held high.

* * *

"Why can't we go in? we're getting drenched!" Stevie complained. The angry squirrel was holding a leaf over his head, futilely trying to keep himself dry. Beside him, Tiffany sat holding his backpack over his head. The two were hidden in the bushes just off the road leading past the almost destroyed stable.

"We're supposed to follow them, not get caught, stupid," Tiffany replied. The two had followed behind Finn and Jake for days. they'd trailed them through the Western Pass, stopping by Castle Lemongrab to gather provisions. The miserly Earl had only given them one pack with only a few days worth of food.

"That is all I can spare," he said, glaring at them. "All my efforts are going to maintain my army guarding the pass, I cannot spare more. Now go!"

'Were in the south, its not like we'll freeze or anything,' Tiffany thought. He smiled as he imagined his reward when this was all over. Jake would be his friend, forever and ever. 'Jake saved me, and I'll always be with him to return the favor.'

 _He thought back to the day he first met the magic dog. Tiffany had been scrounging through a trash heap, searching for anything to eat. He was emaciated and weak. Save for a dirty and rotten pair of underwear, he was almost completely naked. A sudden cry caused him to stand and turned, clutching his dinner, a moldy and maggot ridden piece of cheese to his thin chest protectively._

 _"Hey there buddy! You look like you could use a best friend," the yellow dog said, slowly coming closer. "What's your name? I'm Jake."_

 _"T-Tiffany," he said, he took a step back and prepared to bolt but; something stopped him. A smell on the wind. The dog noticed it too. His own mouth began to water._

 _"Stay here, I'll be right back!" he exclaimed. The green skinned boy didn't know why he didn't run, this had to be a trick or a trap. But; the smell was now getting closer, and finally, the dog returned carrying a pie in each hand. "Jackpot, one for each of us!"_

 _Tiffany snatched the offered pie and began to devour it. It was so good, he didn't even notice the hot blackberries and piecrust covering his face and dripping down onto his chest. Halfway through his pie, Tiffany looked up to see Jake staring at him, smiling._

 _"Guess you haven't eaten much in a long time, huh?" he chuckled at Tiffany licking his pie pan clean, before holding out his uneaten pie. "Here, you can have mine. You look like you need it more than I do."_

 _The second pie was even better than the first, it was a mix of peaches and pears. When he looked up from his second delicious meal, a feeling of sadness began to fill him as the dog was gone again. He sniffled and felt tears begin pricking at his eyes. He finally found someone to be with, and just like that they left him alone again._

 _"I'm back!" to his surprise, Jake returned with an armful of clothes. Tiffany stared at the offered garments in stunned silence. No one had ever given him clothes before, what he had he was forced to steal or dig through trash. The clothes were too big, but; that meant he'd grow into them. "You look perfect! Come on, lets go have some fun- best friend!"_

 _The day had turned out to be almost perfect, finally, things were going Tiffany's way. When Jake brought him to that field to play viola together, after spending several hours teaching him how by showing him the song and helping him with the bow to get the perfect sound and gently guiding him through the harder parts of the song._

 _"Lets go show that jerk Finn what real best friends are!" Jake exclaimed, as he led Tiffany through the tall grass._

"I'm bored!" Stevie exclaimed. Tiffany was snapped out of his memory by something wet smacking him in the side of the head. He looked over to see Stevie smacking him with his tiny paws. "Let me under that backpack!"

The squirrel scampered up onto his head, and immediately curled up and went to sleep. Tiffany sighed as he thought back to that day, he began grinding his teeth at the memory of Finn stealing Jake away from him. His blood began to boil as he remembered the bear hat boy attacking him after finding out Jake was HIS best friend.

"Don't worry, Jake," he mumbled, smiling to himself. "I'll save you, and we'll be best friends forever and ever. Just like you promised."

Despite the downpour of rain falling on his head, Tiffany managed to drift off into a sweet dream of him and Jake.

 **END CHAPTER 8**


	9. Rewarded

**Rewarded**

* * *

The streets were empty, the sun had barely began slinking off into the western sky when the Candy people retreated to their homes and locked their doors. Marceline looked down on the city from high up in the sky. Outside the walls the Marauders could be heard singing and laughing. She wondered if the Candy people were afraid to be out because of the rumors circulating of the Lich prowling around or of the Marauder army.

Slicer had returned several days before, bringing with him a score of his best warriors to dine with her and Bonnie. They were a fearsome bunch, she had to give them that. Erik Ironhook, a massive and sinister steel hook twice the size of a regular hook hand strapped to his arm, Handsome Jarrick Buckland, half his face was a ruin of scar tissue and weeping sores, The Weeper, in his white cloak and always watery eyes, Gendal, the Horned Lord, Andorran Giantkiller a massive warrior that looked to be half giant himself.

Bonnie met them with finesse and grace befitting a princess. Marceline sat in silence, watching this band of savages as they devoured and drank all that was put in front of them as messily as they could. To her credit, PB didn't act like it bothered her, she only smiled and kept talking with Slicer.

"Tell me, my black knight, how goes your campaign?" she asked, placing a small hand on the knight's forearm and gently rubbing it with her thumb, Marceline began grinding her teeth at that. Slicer had better dress sense than his men, he wore a black and silver quilted doublet with a pink badge of his heart, black trousers, and new black riding boots.

"Splendid, my princess. we've crushed all before us with almost no opposition," he said. "The Goblins swore fealty to you and we sent them raiding against the Giants. Soon we'll have the Giants in our country and we'll wipe them out at our leisure."

Marceline raised an eyebrow.

"Almost no opposition?" she asked, the sound of her voice made the princess and the knight look at her in surprise.

"We encountered a column of Fire knights along with heavy horse and archers," he replied, taking a drink from his goblet and wiping his mouth on his sleeve. "No doubt sent to cut us off and destroy us, luckily the Goblin scouts told us of their movements and we led them into a trap. None survived."

Bubblegum nodded.

"I had hoped we would save the Fire Kingdom for last," she said, leaning back in her chair. A thoughtful expression crossed her face. "You deserve a reward, my loyal knight."

"What kind of reward, princess?" he asked, Marceline scoffed as he leaned forward, a hungry look on his face.

"It's time we made an alliance with the Breakfast Kingdom," she replied. "I know no better way to seal that, then with a marriage."

That took the vampire by surprise.

"What?" she asked. "You can't be serious."

Down the table the Marauders began arguing among themselves at the mention of marrying a princess.

"It should be me, I am the only Lord worthy of a princess," The Horned Lord proclaimed. He stood and held up his goblet. Across from him the Giantkiller began laughing.

"You, har! I was killing men when you were still at your mams tit boy!" he boomed. "Give the little girl to me and I'll whelp a vast brood of warriors!"

Marceline felt a rage boil her blood as the Marauders continued arguing who would marry Breakfast Princess. The vampire felt like she would be sick as they began talking of what their wedding night would be like.

"Sir Slicer, you shall have the honor," Bubblegum said. The warriors fell silent, all looked towards the princess in surprise and shock. "But; she does have 2 sisters, the rest of you may fight over who gets them."

Without another word, PB stood and made her way out of the dining hall. Marceline hissed as she watched the princess take Slicer by the arm as the two exited the hall. A strong hand grabbing her by the shoulder caused Marceline to flinch. She turned to see Jarrick Buckland looking down at her with his ruined face and one good eye.

"I'll have you over any princess," he said. Before she could stop him, the Marauder seized her by the neck and yanked her into a rough kiss. When his tongue slipped into her mouth she bit down as hard as she could. When he released her, she slashed at the unmarred side of his face, leaving long thin slashes down the side of his face.

She flew from the hall, the sounds of laughter chasing her, and the metallic sweetness of blood on her tongue. She turned invisible as she silently approached Bubblegum's bedchamber. The sounds of voices made her stop and place her ear to the door.

"I dreamed of you while I was gone," she heard Slicer say. Marceline knelt and peeked through keyhole. "Is this princess as pretty as you?"

Bubblegum giggled.

"I don't think so, she's more so than the rest of the princesses of Ooo," PB replied, the sound of boots being kicked off broke through the air. "Let us talk of other things, leave her for when you return."

"I'd rather have you," he said. The vampire queen gagged as she heard Bonnie laugh at him. A sudden and loud ripping sound filled the air. Bubblegum gasped.

"You bastard, I liked that dress," she said, laughing. Marceline felt her heart stop as she looked around through the keyhole to see Slicer pulling a now naked Bubblegum, her dress pooling about her feet, into a kiss. She grit her teeth as they broke apart. "Enough of this, to bed, my knight."

"What of your vampire?" he asked, as the princess began undoing his belt. "Won't she be jealous?"

"Marceline knows she and I can never be together," PB said. "I'm a princess and she's just another monster."

Slicer picked her up easily, and carried her out of Marceline's field of vision. The vampire quickly flew away, not wanting to hear anymore. She flew far and fast, not really caring where she was going. The words of the princess kept playing over and over in her mind.

 _She's just another monster._

 _Just another monster._

 _Another monster._

 _Monster._

* * *

His head was throbbing. Cinnamon Bun groaned and tried to sit up, his stomach lurched painfully, causing the pastry to fall back onto the floor. He barely managed to roll over onto his side before vomiting a large mess of foul yellow bile.

"Take it easy, CB," a voice said. It sounded far away, like it was lost among a thick fog. Cinnamon Bun tried to open his eyes only to find his left one wouldn't open.

"Am I blind?" he asked, looking around, trying to see anything. His one eye was still cloudy and everything around him was blurry and distorted.

"No," one of the larger shapes said in a voice like thunder. "You tripped over your own feet and the knife pommel smacked you in the eye."

'I failed,' he thought. He was no true knight, he was only a Cinnamon Bun trying to play at being a hero. "Kill me, and be done with it."

"What? No! Why would we do that?" another ghost asked. "We're your friends!"

"Your no friends of mine, Marauders!" he exclaimed. CB tried to sit up again, but another wave of nausea forced him back down.

"Marauders? what's he talking about?" another voice chimed in. "Maybe he messed his other eye up too."

A dark shape swooped down in front of his face.

"How many fingers am I holding up?"

"I- I can't-" Cinnamon Bun felt his head begin to pound and throb, dark spots began to appear in front of him and soon he was falling back into darkness.

Finn patted the side of the pastry's face lightly.

"He's really out of it," he said. He leaned back against the stall and looked over to where Rattleballs was heating up the knife Cinnamon Bun had been using over a small fire. When it was red hot, the gumball robot slid it down into each of the fire knight's wounds one after the other. "How's he doing?"

Rattleballs looked up at him, and shrugged.

"This will clean the water from his wounds, and may close them up if we are lucky," he said, placing the knife back over the fire. "If he will recover, that, I do not know."

When they had entered the stable, Cinnamon Bun had tried to attack them. The screaming pastry had caught them all by surprise, had he not tripped and fell Finn wasn't sure what could have happened. So far, the rain had not stopped, but had only grown stronger, forcing the group to wait it out. That had been 3 days past.

Cinnamon Bun had been tossing and turning in his sleep, occasionally screaming a name and thrashing like he was on fire.

"Marbrand…. Goblins attacking," he mumbled, Finn and Jake had to hold him down, less he hurt himself more by accident. "Princess….. failed…. Love you."

Samantha had left them on the second day, she was not one to be idle for long.

"I will scout ahead, and return when I find something," she said, before she ran off into the storm.

On the fourth day the Fire Knight finally awoke, he was weak and groggy.

"Captain…. Captain?" he said, looking around confusedly, like he was still in the throes of a dream. "Scouts all dead….. Marauders crucified them."

He was awake only for a few minutes before he fell back to a fitful sleep. A day later, when the stable shook with each crack of thunder, Samantha returned. She was drenched from head to toe, it took a better part of 2 hours to finally get her dry.

"I found the remains of the Fire Kingdom forces, they were massacred several miles from here on the banks of the river," she said, over a bowl of soup. "There were at least 3000 of them. I followed what tracks I could but; all the rain washed them out."

"Goblins, and Marauders," the four turned at the sudden voice. Cinnamon Bun was sitting up, tears streaming down from his good eye. "We we're tricked, Count Magmus told Flame Princess that the Marauders were only 2000. they ambushed us on the river, we could have held the line, but; a Goblin force I didn't think much about attacked from the rear."

"CB-" Finn began, but; the pastry knight cut him off.

"I barely survived, hiding under the bodies of my men as Marbrand was tortured," he said, his whole body shaking. "A coward survives while the brave and true get murdered. What kind of world is this where something like that can happen?"

Finn glanced at the rest of his party, Jake was trying to be strong, but; Finn could see he was ready to breakdown. Rattleballs kept a stoic face, while Samantha was watching CB, a look of barely contained anger and rage was building up.

"Finn, my princess is alone among enemies," he said. He tried to stand, but; the wound on his side began to leak, and he quickly collapsed. The pastry knight began to sob. "I have to save her! I have to save my love!"

"He has a lion's heart," Samantha said, standing up she hefted her massive battle axe over her head. "I say we go to rescue this princess!"

Rattleballs stood and pulled his saber from its scabbard.

"I agree, to the Fire Kingdom!" he exclaimed. "I failed my princess, I won't fail this one."

Finn and Jake looked at each other and nodded.

"What time is it?" Jake asked, jumping up.

"Adventure Time!" Finn finished. He jumped to his feet and drew the grass sword.

At the time the little band did not know that the coming days would bring Ooo closer towards the brink of destruction. That their choice would send ripples all through the land that would clash together into something so deadly and destructive that Ooo would never be the same again.

 **END CHAPTER 9**


	10. An Easy Deal

**An Easy Deal**

* * *

A savage cry split the night, its shrill tittering echoed for miles and miles. To some it sounded like the cry of some monstrous beast that finally brought its prey to ground, to others it was a cry wild filled with anger and grief mixed together to form a sound that was ripped from the deepest and darkest parts of the Nightosphere.

It anyone foolish enough to be out on this night looked up, they would see a sinister black shape streaking across the star-filled sky, eyes glowing red and a mouth agape with long curved fangs that glistened in the moonlight.

"WHHHHHYYYY!" She shrieked, her cry sent flocks of bird flying from their roosts. Far off in the mountains wolves began to howl as if to answer her. "I LOVED YOU!"

 _"She's just another monster."_

 _"Just another monster."_

 _"Another monster."_

 _"Monster."_

"I'LL SHOW YOU A MONSTER!" below her, Marceline saw a deer take off running from her cry, mad with fear. Swooping down, she cannoned into the fleeing doe. Her vast strength easily brought the deer down to earth and she began tearing into its soft, warm flesh with her talons. "DIE! DIE! DIE!"

The deer kicked wildly, trying in vain to remove the crazed vampire with its razor sharp hooves. It began giving a strangled cry as Marceline buried both of her hands deep into the animal's side and began ripping great bloody chunks of meat and muscle with each hand. In her wild rage, Marceline saw the deer below her transform, one second it was a large doe, the next it began to shrink and change until Bubblegum was lying underneath of her.

 _"How could you even think I could love a monster like you?"_ she asked, laughing. Marceline ground her fangs together at the princess began to snicker at her. _"I could never love a beast like you, your nothing but a stupid animal that can't control her emotions. But then, you always were a stupid bitch."_

With that, the vampire lunged, burying her face in PB's throat. Her fangs easily tore through the soft flesh and quickly her mouth began to fill with thick, warm blood. She began to gulp it down mouthful after mouthful. Raising her face to the moon she began to roar, it was a savage, hate-filled thing that echoed for miles and froze the blood of any who heard its mournful cry.

A soft clapping began to fill the air. Marceline whirled, baring her fangs and hissing like a cornered snake. In the shadows of a tall pine tree a figure stepped out into the moonlight. He was tall with slick black hair. His skin was an ash Grey color and his eyes were red. He wore a well pressed and clean black suit, his red boots twinkled in the light.

"Look at you," he said, chuckling. Marceline hissed again and crouched, getting her legs balled up underneath her. "Daddy's little monster."

At the word monster, she shrieked like a banshee and leaped. Hunson Abadeer didn't blink at the sudden spring. He hopped to the side at the last second, skipping away as Marceline skidded, her claws leaving long drag marks on the ground. The lord of the Nightosphere laughed again as his daughter began to circle on all fours. He turned his head to keep her in sight but; other than that he barely moved a muscle.

"Gotta say I'm loving the new attitude kiddo, got a real feral beast thing going on here," he said, smiling broadly, showing off his own razor sharp set of fangs. "That dress really pulls the whole thing together, I'm gonna guess it was a ballgown, right? I'm right aren't I?"

The pretty black and red gown that Bonnie had given to her was in tatters. The wind had almost ripped it completely off, the remains barely clung to her body. The deer had kicked her several good times, tearing it even more in places but; she hardly had noticed.

Marceline's brain was screaming to run, to hide, to kill, to feed. All these things rushed through her mind as she leaped again, but; this time, her father reached out at the last seconds and snatched by by the throat with one hand. She began to hiss and struggle, trying in vain to kick and claw her way free. Every cut and tear to his suit was immediately fixed with seconds and his skin seemed to be made of steel as her attacks seemed to do nothing.

"Boy, you really have lost it, haven't you?" he asked, shaking his head and sighing wearily. "Honestly, I don't see how your ever going to rule the Nightosphere if this is how you choose to spend your time. Look, Marceline I want you to-"

He was cut off by the vampire jamming her thumb into his eye. The lord of the Nightosphere let out a shrill cry of pain and rage. Releasing his hold on Marceline, he stumbled away, holding his hands over his eye, a thick black ooze began dribbling through his fingers. The vampire saw an opening and charged.

Hunson whirled at the last second and caught his daughter in the side of the head with a backhand that gave a crack like thunder. The force sent her slamming into a tree. The vampire queen had barely crawled up onto her hands and knees before a hard kick to her stomach drove her through the trunk of the tree with a savage snap.

In an instant, Hunson was on top of her. He drove his fists over and over into her face. His ruined eye was running black with his dark and foul blood.

"YOU LITTLE BITCH! HOW DARE YOU TOUCH ME, I AM YOUR FATHER!" he roared, his lips curling back to reveal his wicked fangs. "I AM LORD OF THE NIGHTOSPHERE YOU WILL SUFFER FOR THIS YOU WHORE YOU DIRTY FILTHY WHORE! I'LL RIP THE FLESH FROM YOUR BONES FOR 10,000 YEARS! I'LL-"

But; just like it had began so suddenly, it was over. Hunson Abadeer regained his composure and stood up, walking away from his brutalized daughter. He took several deep breaths and watched as she effortlessly began to heal the wounds he'd inflicted. When she finally regained consciousness, the feral look in her eyes was gone, and it was replaced by fear.

In the blink of an eyes she was streaking off through the night sky and within mere seconds was gone from sight. Hunson sighed, and winced slightly as his eyeball regrew itself in a matter of seconds. Behind him a figure dressed all in yellow with a large sheep skull for a head stepped out of the darkness.

"Thank you, Death," he said, turning to face his old friend. "I didn't believe it, but; you were right. Gotta say, I like where all this is going."

"Do you? Even if it means the death of your daughter?" Death asked, his voice sounding frigid as an avalanche. Hunson snorted.

"She'll end up in the Nightosphere," he said, locking eyes with his companion. There passed an unspoken order that her soul be sent to him. "Good, now if you'll excuse me. I have a date."

Death watched as Hunson walked away in the direction of the Candy Kingdom, whistling happily.

* * *

Bonnie awoke to eyes. In the corner of her bedroom they seemed to be floating in the darkness. She felt a shiver go down her spine as they started coming towards her. She reached out beside her blindly, fearing what would happen if she broke contact with those things. Slicer grumbled in his sleep as she shook him. The knight only rolled away from her.

"Who's there?" she asked, her voice sounded soft and weak, like it was being smothered by the darkness. "Marceline? Is that you?"

A soft tittering began to fill the room, it seemed to be all around her and nowhere at the same time. Her heart began to pound in her chest as the eyes vanished from sight. Tears began welling up in her eyes as the glowing orbs reappeared at the foot of her bed.

"You're very beautiful," a voice like velvet whispered. The eyes kept staring into hers, into her soul. The voice came again, softly, next to her ear. "I have to give you some credit, princess. Not many rulers can cast their allies aside like they were nothing."

She swallowed the lump in her throat, and licked her lips.

"My allies are all loyal," she whispered, her voice almost breaking. "I renounced the traitors, the schemers."

"Oh, I see. that's a horse of a different color, isn't it?" the voice asked, chuckling softly. "What about Marceline?"

"W-what?" she muttered. She felt like a hand was squeezing her heart.

"I saw her just a little while ago, out there, in the woods," a soft breath touched her neck. "She was savage, relentless, a real animal."

Bubblegum glanced over at the still sleeping Slicer and shook him again.

"Stop that!" the voice commanded, turning from soft and playful to hard and stern. "Even if you could wake him up he'd die in a heartbeat."

"What do you want?" she asked, pulling the covers up to her chin in a futile gesture of safety.

"Me? Why to cut a deal, of course," the voice replied, softening again. A loud snap of fingers made the princess jump as the lights came on to reveal a demon in a black suit sitting in one of her chairs. He gestured to the other one beside him. "Come, sit! let's talk like civilized people."

Numbly, and without control of her body, PB could only watch as her body rose and floated towards the chair. She began to sweat as she was dropped into her seat. The demon cross one leg over the other and smiled, revealing a mouthful of fangs.

"Who-Who are you?" she asked. She wondered if she screamed how long the Battlebots would take to rush in and save her.

"Me? Well it should be obvious to you, my dear," he said, leaning back in his chair. "I'm Hunson Abadeer, Marceline's dear old daddy."

"The….. the….. the…."

"The lord of the Nightosphere, yes," he finished. "And, like I said, I want to cut a deal."

Bubblegum raised an eyebrow nervously.

"What kind of deal?" she asked. "My soul?"

He chuckled.

"No, no I want more than just your soul, little girl," he said. With a wave of his hand they were surrounded in darkness. Then, a great green fire erupted all around her. Bonnie screamed as the reanimated corpses of her former friends came staggering through it towards her. Up above she could see the Lich, laughing as his army of the dead swarmed towards her. But; just as they reached her, everything vanished. "That, is what's in store for you and your kingdom."

Then the dreams were true, she knew it! Her heart began to pound and sweat began slithering down her body.

"How can you stop it?" she asked, he had the power, didn't he as lord of all the Nightosphere.

"Me? Oh no, you though. Well, that's something else," he said. He closed his hand into a fist and held it out palm up. Opening his fingers he revealed a necklace made of the blackest metal Bubblegum had ever seem. In the center was a large emerald that seemed to glow. "This, is the answer to all your problems. When the time is right, all you have to do is throw it to the ground."

She looked at it in shock, her hand trembled as she reached for it, waiting for the necklace to change into a snake or something. But; it didn't. The chain was ice cold and the emerald seemed to pulse in her hand.

"So, in return for this little tiny thing, my price is this," he said. "When the war is won, I get all the souls of the fallen, enemy and ally. Is that fair?"

"Is that all?" she asked. "A small price to save all of Ooo."

Hunson smiled.

"Almost like I'm cheating myself," he said, chuckling. He held out his hand. "We got a deal?"

Bonnie smiled, the fool had stumbled and gave her everything. If she didn't use this bauble then he would gain nothing.

"Yes!" she said, grabbing his hand. "So, is a deal with a devil always this easy?"

He smiled again.

"No, not **A** devil," he replied, squeezing her hand. " **THE** Devil."

And with that, he vanished in a flash of red light. Bonnie jerked awake to find herself still in bed. Beside her, Slicer snored away.

"A dream?" she muttered. "Just a dream."

Something bounced between her breast. Looking down she saw a large glowing emerald wrapped by a black chain.

On the wind, she heard a soft tittering.

 **END CHAPTER 10**


	11. The Cult

**The Cult**

* * *

A day after crossing the river the group began to find only burned and blackened fields. Where they expected to find corn, wheat, melons, carrots and many other such crops were completely destroyed. Soon they came upon livestock that had been butchered, throats slashed open and left to rot in the sun. soon it became apparent that this wanton destruction was going on for miles and miles.

"CB, did the Marauders cross the river after the battle?" Finn asked. He covered his nose as they passed by a pair of bloated pigs covered in flies.

"No, they all headed back through the pass," he replied, trying not to gag. "The Goblins headed south from the river, so they couldn't have come this way."

The further and further they went, all they seemed to find was destruction. Outside a burning farmhouse they came upon children that had been hanged upside down from a tree and gutted like hogs, their entrails were dry and green from baking in the sun for who knew how long.

"Oh, I'm gonna be sick!" Jake said. He barely had time to turn before a torrent of green yellow vomit spilled from his mouth. He gagged and heaved for what seemed like an eternity, before he finally wiped his mouth and stood up. "Who would do something like this?"

"KILL THEM! GIVE THEIR BLOOD TO THE STAG!"

A ragged band of men and women wearing ripped and dirty rags came charging over the hill. Their eyes were wild and each had a red star painted over their while face. They brandished scythes, hoes, pitchforks, and woodsman's axes.

"Finally, a battle!" Samantha leaped, effortlessly cleaving the first man to approach her from his shoulder down to his naval. Wrenching her battleaxe free, she whirled and brought it crashing through a woman's skull as she tried to attack the dog goddess from behind.

Cinnamon Bun retreated from a woman swinging a scythe, her eyes were bloodshot and thick foam was flowing from her mouth.

The pastry knight made the mistake of looking back, as he turned his head he missed seeing a rock, and crashed to the ground with a thud. Rolling over onto his back, CB began scrambling backwards as the woman kept coming.

Luckily, just as she raised the scythe to deliver the finishing blow, a horse screaming drew her attention. As she turned, Marbrand made the horse rear, causing its hooves to cave in her skull as they came down.

"Get up Captain!" he exclaimed. Before he could react, the fire knight was quickly pulled from the saddle by several more star faced people. He began to scream as they began to stab at him with their hoes and pitchforks.

"Marbrand!" Cinnamon Bun snatched the dead woman's scythe and ran towards the fallen knight. He drove the blade of the scythe through one man's skull with a savage and meaty thunk, pulling it out he sliced the next one's throat with a quick slash. "Get away from him!"

Finn sidestepped a pitchfork thrust before countering with a slash from his grass blade that took the man's arm off at the shoulder. The hero felt like he was going to cry as the man began shrieking and clawing at the blood hole before collapsing.

"Oh Glob," he whispered, covering his mouth with his hand. "Oh Glob oh Glob oh Glob!"

"Finn! Help Cinnamon Bun!" Jake screamed. The magic dog pointed to where the pastry was slowly being overwhelmed by the crazed people.

"Finn the human! I require assistance!" Rattleballs had been brought down by sheer force of numbers. They where stabbing and hacking his body to little effect, but; eventually one of them would get lucky.

It seemed like there was no end to them, more and more began to appear from almost nowhere. Finn's heart was pounding and his breathing grew rapid as he mentally screamed at himself to do something, to save someone.

A shout rang out and the sound of thunder began filling the air, growing louder and louder with each passing second instead of dissipating. Coming over the hill was something Finn had never expected. For almost a heartbeat, he thought they were knights riding down towards them, armor gleaming in the sun, war lances lowered. But; when the first charge tore through the star faced people and they passed Finn by-

"Centaurs!" he exclaimed. They galloped to the edge of the fighting and wheeled around and charged forward, this time in a wedge formation. The crazed people stood their ground, Finn could not fault them for courage, though he wasn't sure courage was the right word. The wedge effortlessly ripped through the ranks, and sent the people scattering.

"Draw weapons!" a centaur ordered. He was massive, the lower half of him was almost 3 times the size of the horse that their little band had along with them. All around them the centaurs drew swords or axes, a few had spiked flails.

"KILL THE BEASTS! FOR THE STAG!" one of the star people yelled. And just like that, Finn and his friends were forgotten as they enemy moved to fight against the new arrivals.

It was a slaughter, the hoes, and scythes, and pitchforks were no match against the armed and armored centaurs. Within minutes most of the star faced people lay dead or dying. The last few were running away across a burned field, a few centaurs retrieved their lances and gave chase.

Finn swallowed nervously as the centaur who seemed to be in command of the others finally noticed him. He was dressed in blue scaled mail with heavy gorget and gauntlets. His lower half was armored in like a warhorse would be, a heavy padded coat with thin armored bands for the legs. He removed his helmet to reveal a long mane of blonde hair, long ears poked out of it.

"Thank you for saving us," Finn said. The centaur eyed him warily, after a few seconds, he sheathed his sword. "I'm Finn, who're you?"

"I am Sir Jaime of Galilee," he replied. He looked away to where the centaurs who had ridden off were returning. "You and yours aren't part of the Star Cult, are you? I took you for a traveling circus group."

That struck Finn as more of a statement instead of an answer. All around them the other centaurs began taking notice of his friends. Rattleballs and Samantha came to stand behind him as Jake went over to comfort Cinnamon Bun, who was weeping over Marbrand.

"No, who were those guys?" he asked. The centaurs had begun piling the bodies up and began throwing them one by one into the burning farmhouse. "They seemed organized."

"Yes, they've been troubling the land for months, I fear at the rate they burn and kill, the land will starve before the end of next year," he replied. "The worst part of it is, that these people are the farmers."

Finn felt a rock drop into his stomach. He looked back at the children, and a new wave of disgust and horror grew in him. Jaime nodded.

"The Star Speaker who leads them preaches freedom from working and growing," he said, gesturing to the burned and ruined fields. "The people have gone mad to think this will free them, aye it will though truth be told, only after they starve."

"Why is no one doing anything?" Samantha asked, lifting her battleaxe up onto her shoulder. "Surely your princess knows about this, why has she not asked for aid from another kingdom?"

Jaime scowled at her.

"She…. She is unable to do anything," he said. "I and my men have been riding out against this madness, but; chasing this cult is like trying to catch the wind. They burn a farm and vanish by the time we arrive. Luckily, they stumbled upon you as we chased them or else they would have gotten away again."

"If we help you stop this cult, will you help us?" Finn asked.

The Centaur raised an eyebrow, before smiling.

"Help us stop the Star cult? Just you and your little band of mummers?" he asked, chuckling softly. "Amusing, but; very well jester, on my honor as a knight. If you help us destroy this cult I will lend you my aid in anyway you see fit."

Finn didn't feel like he was being mocked, truth be told, were the roles reversed he would find it funny. Jaime trotted off and began speaking with the other centaurs.

"We don't have time for this, Finn," Samantha said. "We need to reach the Fire Kingdom as soon as possible."

"I know, but; if we're going to stop Bubblegum we'll need more than just the Fire Kingdom," he said. "We'd be sunk if our army gets defeated by rain just as we reached the Candy Kingdom."

"That is true, we might need aid from more than one kingdom alone," Rattleballs replied. "Princess Bubblegum will only add more and more groups to her cause we shall need to do the same."

The dog goddess sighed in defeat.

"Fine, if you think we need Sir Horse Ass and his band of mules then who am I to object?" she said, smirking. "But; when we find this Star cult, the Star Speaker is mine to kill."

"Then its settled, we ride for Galilee at once," Jaime said, trotting over. He turned and knelt down in front of Finn. "Hop on."

"What?" he asked.

"You didn't think we would make you walk, did you?" Jaime asked. "We haven't the time for that. Get on my back."

"What about Marbrand?" Finn asked.

"You guys go on ahead, me and CB will catch up," Jake said. He changed both of his hands into shovels and began to dig a hole.

Finn nodded, and climbed up onto the Centaur's back.

"We return to Galilee!" Jaime exclaimed. Finn clung to him as the centaur took off at a gallop.

The barren and burned landscape seemed to fly by and soon the dead and destroyed gave way to green and fertile.

"The cult hasn't come here yet," Jaime said. "We've been trying to keep them out in the barren waste they've created for themselves."

Soon a great Grey stone castle seemed to climb up out of the earth and the closer and closer they came, Finn could see that Galilee was almost 4 times the size of Bubblegum's palace.

"There, that is Galilee," Jaime said. Riding down towards the castle the column stopped before a mouth that seemed to stretch on and on. "The moat is almost 3 feet deep, with iron spikes and other things."

Finn felt a tingle go down his spine as a large crocodile surfaced and regarded him with cold, unfeeling eyes. The drawbridge came down with a thud and as they crossed under the archway, the hero counted almost a dozen murder holes for bowmen as well as several large holes for boiling oil to be dropped.

Inside the yard all manner of creatures could be seen. Dogs and Rainicorns, snakemen with yellow eyes and dripping fangs, minotaurs, orcs, ogres, and centaurs as well.

"Our kingdom takes in those that have no home," Jaime said. "The princess has always had a kind and loving heart."

"I hope CB and Jake can find this place," Finn said, as he dismounted.

"Don't worry, after we've eaten and rested I'll send a few men after them," Jaime said. "Come, you need to meet the princess."

Jaime led them up into the castle. They passed through a large and sprawling throne room that had a ceiling so high they could barely see it. The centaur led them out through a side door and out into the rear yard toward the outer bailey.

A tall, foreboding tower seemed to stretch up and up into the sky. Jaime opened the door at the base and ushered the three inside. He led them up a long and twisting staircase. Several times they had to stop and rest. At the top they found a door locked and barred.

"The princess is within," Jaime said. He removed the bar and opened the various locks with a set of keys.

The door swung open on a dark and messy room. Against the far wall a thin form knelt beneath a large black statue of a bipedal deer with large antlers.

"The blood will feed the earth and allow you to return and then we shall be free-" the thin form fell silent at the sound of the door swinging open. Finn swallowed hard as it turned to face the door. The girl was taller than him, with long raven hair that almost touched the floor. She was so thin that he could see her joints move. "FOR THE STAG!"

With a wild shriek she charged, her eyes were wide and completely glassy. Jaime slammed the door shut just as she leaped, slamming against it. Inside they could hear her screaming as she clawed and scratched the door.

"She has fallen under the spell of this Star Speaker," he said, as he went about locking the door. "We were able to keep it silent that she was like this, else it would cause a panic. Finn, if your serious about this, then we haven't the time to lose."

"I am, we need you and your knights," he said.

Jaime nodded.

"Tell me of your reasons after we've saved the kingdom," he replied, as they began descending the stairs. "Come, there is food and drink to be had. Then we will rest before setting out again."

 **END CHAPTER 11**


	12. Revelation

**Revelation**

* * *

In the west, the sky had changed to the color of blood. Above them the stars began to appear one at a time, then two, before finally they began multiplying until Jake couldn't count them all. He wondered how Lady was doing with Sweet P, he didn't want to think too much about the boy; but; all that had happened was because of them.

"Because we couldn't kill him," he muttered. If they had managed to strike as the muscles started covering his form, instead of chasing Finn's dad, the Lich would be done. "I don't belong here."

Behind him, he heard Cinnamon Bun putting that last stone on top of Marbrand's grave. They had mounted Marbrand's helmet on top of the crude marker, only a stick planted in the ground.

"I'm sorry, my friend," CB said. He stood up and patted the helmet. "I failed you, I saved you from the Marauders only to let you die to peasants. that's no death for a knight."

Jake stood there in silence as the pastry knight kept apologizing and swearing to avenge the fallen Fire Kingdom warrior. The magic dog looked away, and thought about the battle. he'd immediately shrank down and hid behind the tree. In all the chaos going on, no one seemed to notice him cowering under a leaf.

"I'm no warrior, maybe I should just go home," he said, louder than he meant to as almost immediately he felt eyes watching him. Jake turned to see Cinnamon Bun staring at him, anger growing in his dark eyes. "What?"

"Go home? Go home!" he exclaimed. "How can you even say that? we've come too far to turn back!"

"Hey! I got a wife and kids," Jake said. "I can't be risking my life like this against crazy farmers and the Marauders!"

Cinnamon Bun shoved him, Jake pinwheeled his arms to try and regain his balance. He barely managed to stay on his feet.

"What's your problem?" Jake asked, wiping the dirt left by CB's hands off his chest. "You're being a real jerk!"

"If your so much of a coward, then why are you here?" Cinnamon Bun asked, pointing to the grave. "Why did you follow Finn if you weren't prepared to fight?"

"I…. I just…." Jake muttered. Why had he followed Finn? All the death and carnage was way out of anything they were used to facing. People were dying and all the two of them could do was watch. "I thought…."

"You thought what? That you could just magic it all away and everything would be fine?" Cinnamon Bun asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "That all the dead would just stand up alive and everyone gets to go home?"

"I thought that….. that we could stop it," Jake said, looking down. "I thought that Finn could talk PB out of this and that no one else had to die. But; he couldn't and now…. Now I…. I don't know what to do."

The sound of hooves caught their attention as several Centaurs galloped up the road towards them. The leader was dark skinned, and wore orange and black armor.

"Come along, Sir Jaime wants to march within the hour," he said, as he effortlessly scooped the two up and deposited them each on the back of two centaurs. "You're lucky we made it in time."

"Lucky?" Jake asked. He glanced back at Cinnamon Bun to see the pastry knight look away angrily.

"We were almost overtaken by a group of Star worshipers," he replied, as the group broke out into a gallop. "We'll take you back the other way and meet up with the rest of the battalion by the river near the castle."

* * *

The camp was filled with the sounds of music and laughter. Finn almost forgot that they were going into battle later. Sir Jaime's tent was almost thrice the size of the others scattered around, it was made of a thick canvas that had been oiled several times to make it water resistant. Finn was seated next to the centaur as he stretched out a massive map onto a long table.

"Here is where we are," he said, pointing to a spot on the map. Jaime began moving his finger around the map stopping every few seconds to comment on something. "Brax is bringing your friends back across the plains, here. When they arrive we will strike camp and set out."

Finn glanced at the map, the drawings were very well done. From one side he saw the Galilee was resting only 20 or so miles from the border of the Breakfast Kingdom, and from there it was only a day or so to the Fire Kingdom.

"Do we know where the cultists are?" he asked, leaning forward in his chair.

"My scouts reported that they've seen large groups of cultists moving across the western plains heading towards the mountains," he said, pointing on the map. "Here, that is the most likely place they will be."

"How can you be so sure? All we've heard is here say," Samantha said. "For all we know the scouts are wrong and we march into a trap."

The centaur looked up at her and shook his head.

"They've burned all the land from here to here," he said, sweeping his hand across the map. "We chased them to you here, that is only a few miles from the mountain. They aren't traveling far from where the Star Speaker is. But; I fear that will change soon."

With a nod, one of the guards outside the tent dragged in a dirty and bloody woman wearing the remnants of a dress. Her eyes were bulging out of her skull and the red star painted on her face was even more shocking as her blood seemed to be soaking it.

"Your death is near, the Star Singer summons our God tonight!" she howled, cackling shrilly. Her laugh was cut short by the guard sending her to the ground with a hard backhand blow. The woman looked up at him angrily and spit a mix of blood and teeth at his feet. "I'll gut you myself, you filthy abomination! Ours is the true ruling race here, not you centaurs!"

"Tell me, what kind of magic spell has he used on you?" Jaime asked. He came around the table and stood before her. "What has he done to make you burn your fields, kill your livestock, and even butcher your own children?"

Finn felt a chill go down his spine as the woman smiled, showing off her missing teeth.

"The spell is freedom, freedom from you beasts," she said, rising to her knees. "Freedom from slaving away to feed your lot in Galilee while we are left to starve. Freedom to do as we please!"

"I see, tell me something. Are you oppressed by Galilee? I seem to recall that there are no taxes for the farmers," Jaime said, he began holding up a finger for each of his points. "Galilee barely collects anything from the farms, only 5 percent every 3 months. The people are allowed to take a few deer from the woods every fall and winter, the princess doesn't enforce most of the laws-"

"-Only the most sacred!" the woman exclaimed, cutting him off. "The law that no beast be sacrificed to the Stag on the harvest night, the law that masses may not be held for the Stag. That Stag worship is outlawed in the kingdom!"

"For good reason, look at what your worship has achieved, how long before you and yours starve to death after you burn all the food?" Jaime asked, he turned and waved her away. "Hang her."

"What was she talking about?" Finn asked, watching as the woman was dragged away.

"Madness, the Stag isn't outlawed, just the vile practices of animal sacrifices and black magic," he replied. He grabbed a wine jug and a goblet and began filling it. "Once we kill this Star Speaker, his spell will be broken."

"What if his death changes nothing?" Rattleballs asked.

Jaime turned and looked at them all.

"We leave none alive," he replied. "For Galilee, this madness ends tonight."

* * *

From high atop a rocky crag the Star Speaker watched as below at the foot of the mountain the cultists were in full swing. The massive bonfire they had built took the better part of the day and now was roaring so fiercely that the glow seemed to chase the stars from the sky.

He smiled evilly, how easy this had been. It had taken almost no time at all to turn the sniveling maggots into rabid dogs at his command. His imps and lesser ghouls had been sent slinking into the night to whisper dark tidings into the peasant's ears. Revolution, freedom, burn and kill and you will be free.

"Such fools these mortals be," he said. The raw, pure anger and hate was filling him, making him stronger with each passing second. In the darkness, he began to change. His face began to stretch and shift as the human skin he wore began ripping and tearing at his curved horns began pushing out. His long fingers grew into talons that began to effortlessly tear at the remaining flesh covering his form. "Soon, soon all will be mine."

The Star Speaker now stood well over 7 feet tall with long gangly arms corded with lean muscle. His skin was a dark purple, almost black. His white, maggot like tongue slid out and licked his dry lips. He smiled again, showing off a mouth full of long, thin dagger sharp fangs. His long spiky tail swished back and forth across the ground lazily.

"Yours, Hadrian?" a voice asked. The demon whirled and hissed like a cornered snake as Hunson Abadeer stepped out of the darkness, behind him followed Death. "I think you mean mine, old friend."

Hadrian sneered and hissed through his teeth. The lord of the Nightosphere ignored the glaring demon and stepped past him to gaze down at the people dancing below.

"I was wondering why I kept feeling so much raw hate and anger here, now I know," he turned to looked at the purple demon and smiled. "Its been too long since an Anger demon has been loose from the Nightosphere. Tell me, how did you escape?"

Death looked back and forth between the two. He watched on as the demons waged a silent battle of wills between them. The contest was broken by a war horn sounding in the distance. The sudden sound caused a commotion down below as the cultists began to scramble everywhere. Within seconds a column of centaur knights charged out of the darkness and tore through the peasants with ease.

"Looks like your little plan has hit a snag, Hadrian," Hunson said. His hand shot out and clamped over the Anger demon's mouth, followed by the other onto his forehead. "Its time you saw real anger, you bottom feeder!"

Hunson glanced down and grinned widely at the sight of Marceline's little hero friend. He glanced back to the struggling demon in his grasp and an idea popped into his mind.

"Hear my words!" he said, his voice booming like thunder. "Varrig yogsothon balmoria!"

The Anger demon began to writhe and fight as his skin began to glow a bright purple and his eyes grew clouded and pale.

Finn ducked a scythe blow and slashed at the cultist, slicing his chest open before stabbing his grass blade into his foe's stomach. A shout from above caught his attention and when he looked up, a chill ran down his spine.

"Call yourself a hero, boy?" Marceline's dad asked. "Why not pit your skills against a real foe!"

A shadow passed overhead as something large and heavy crashed into the ground. Through the dust a massive purple arm shot out and seized the human around the middle and lifted him off the ground. The demon's face regarded him with a blank look on its face before it began to roar loud enough to cause both of Finn's eardrums to almost rupture.

With his ears ringing and his eyesight beginning to go blurry, Finn could barely move at the demon began pulling him down towards a gaping maw filled with huge, dripping fangs.

 **END CHAPTER 12**


	13. Drawing Blood

**Drawing Blood**

* * *

Jaime cried out when the demon appeared and seized Finn. The creature's roar, even across the battlefield made his ears hurt. The centaur's eyes widened in horror as he watched the now almost unconscious human being lowered toward the beasts gaping maw.

"Galilee! Galilee!" he shouted a battle cry as he charged. His great body effortlessly barreled through the throng of fleeing cultists, the arrival of the demon had seemingly broke them of their madness. Raising his lance, the centaur drove it almost halfway up the shaft into the demon's armpit, drawing a black and foul smelling blood.

Almost immediately, the beast roared again, and dropped the limp human clutched in it's massive paw, before swinging a backhand blow that sent Jaime flying back as if he weighed nothing at all. He skidded along the ground for a dozen yards or so, finally coming to a stop.

His body felt heavy and numb. All around him he could see the fighting, yet, everything sounded so far away. He tried to lift his head to see if Finn was okay, but; he couldn't summon the strength. A shadow fell over him, something heavy slammed down onto his hind legs. The pain shooting through his body woke him up.

The demon stomped on the centaur's legs again and began to chortle as his prey began to shriek. Licking its lips, the Anger demon snatched up the struggling centaur. Jaime squirmed and punched at the great fist, trying in vain to get under the fingers to retrieve his sword.

"No! No! No!" he screamed. The demon stared at him, its features twisted into a snarl as it realized that the centaur had been the one to wound him. Opening his great jaws, the monster brought the struggling creature towards its fangs, it's mouth watering as it prepared to feed.

"Get away from him!" the demon didn't look away from it's prize as the long tail shot out and slapped Finn away as he came charging towards it, grass sword raised for the strike. The human rolled and quickly charged back towards the demon. "Jaime, hold on!"

When the tail flicked out again, Finn was ready. Jumping at the last second, the human landed on the still moving appendage and leaped. The demon snapped its jaws as it brought the centaur closer, its long tongue slithered out and licked at Jaime's chest and face.

Finn shouted as he leaped, catching the monster's attention for a brief second, long enough to plant his sword in the middle of the demon's back. Jaime suddenly felt himself falling through the air as the demon released him with a roar of pain.

He closed his eyes, waiting for the impact of his broken legs smashing into the ground. Luckily, something thick and soft caught him as he fell. He opened his eyes and sighed with relief as Jake brought him down to the ground.

"Hold on, buddy," Jake said, as he began fumbling with a small bottle, trying to open it as quick as he could. "This stuff will fix you right up."

The magic dog finally yanked the top off and began pouring a clear liquid into Jaime's shattered legs. Immediately the bones began to recede and the muscle and skin began knitting back together. The pain vanished instantly, causing Jaime to almost swoon in relief.

Climbing to his feet, Jaime looked to where the demon was struggling and fighting to get Finn off of it's back. Drawing his sword, Jaime looked down at Jake and nodded.

"Galilee! Galilee!" he shot off at a gallop. The demon heard his cry and struck out with his tail. The centaur effortlessly leaped the thrashing tail and sliced through both of the demon's legs behind the knee one after the other in rapid succession.

The monster fell forward and slammed into the ground with a mighty crash. Finn pulled his blade free and quickly climbed up the demon's back and began stabbing it in the back of the neck. The Anger demon began to cry out, a shrill and pitiful thing.

From up on the cliff, Hunson Abadeer looked down and frowned, this was not going as he expected. The cultist's anger should have made Hadrian invincible, but; the sight of the Anger demon broke whatever spell was already on them. He looked towards Death and shrugged his shoulders.

"If you need something done right," he said, jumping off the cliff. He landed with a thud and stood tall before the injured demon and the human boy. "You do it yourself."

With a cry, Finn leaped off of the Anger demon's back and drew back his grass blade to strike at Marceline's dad. The lord of the Nightosphere only stepped aside of the slashed before punching Finn in the stomach. The force sent the teen stumbling back. He pinwheeled his arms to keep his balance, but; in was in vain as he fell backwards.

He reached out his hand to brace his fall, but; as his body rotated all he could see was the looming mouth of the downed demon. Before he could react, the large monster was able to dragged itself forward and snapped it's jaws shut once. Finn screamed as pain began shooting through his body and all feeling went out of his right arm.

When he hit the ground, he looked over to see a growing pool of blood and began to scream as he realized that his right arm was gone completely from the shoulder down. The wounded demon snapped its jaws in rapid succession, tearing through the arm in it's mouth, savoring the hot juicy blood that began filling its mouth.

"That will be your last!" the demon looked around just as Jaime charged towards it, driving a lance through it's eye socket with a wet, meaty pop. The point of the lance punched out through the back of the beast's head in a shower of blood and brains.

"My work here is done," Hunson said. He rocketed up onto the cliff and vanished into the darkness.

Jaime ripped his cloak off and pressed it against Finn's heavily bleeding shoulder. Within seconds the blue cloak was turning crimson.

"Fetch a healer! Now!" Jaime called.

"Oh my Glob! Finn!"

Finn looked around him. The pain was gone from his shoulder, and everything seemed to be getting farther and farther away. Voices were growing softer and softer as his vision began to darken. Just before he finally blacked out, a figure, all in white appeared over him.

"Give him to me," he said.

* * *

"Mother, I am just saying you should have thought it through more carefully," a stern voice said. Sweet P looked up from the picture he had been trying to color for the past hour and began to listen. "Is it safe for you to have him here? If what dad said is true she'll be looking for him."

Down below he heard Lady Rainicorn reply in a language he couldn't understand. Crawling over, Sweet P peeked over the edge of the loft to see a brown dog that looked like Jake, only with a long body like a Rainicorn and wearing a suit. He was angry for some reason.

"I'm just trying to think of your well being, what if someone attacks?" he replied. "What if he transforms? What then?"

Tears began to well up in Sweet P's eyes, and try as he might, he couldn't stop them from falling. Down below, the two looked up to where he was when he tried to stifle a sob. Almost immediately, he found himself wrapped into a soft hug from Lady Rainicorn, her whole body easily wrapping around him and she began kissing at his tears and talking to him softly.

"Oh not this again," Kim Kil Whan groaned as his mother continued showering the boy with affection. He couldn't help but think about his mother hiding the Lich in her house. He closed his eyes and pinched his nose. "Fine, whatever. Do what you want."

With that he vanished in flash of colorful light.

"Thank you," he said, hugging the rainbow colored unicorn. "For everything."

* * *

The old man had appeared out of nowhere.

"Give him to me," he said, standing among them. His face was lined and weary, long white hair hung down almost to his knees. His eyes were completely white and had scars all around them as if something had tried to scratch them out. Under his cloak he was wrapped in heavy chains, they cross crossed his body and around his neck and down his legs. He dressed all in white, from his cloak, to his shirt, to his pants, and even his boots were white.

They had hastily erected Jaime's tent and carried Finn inside. The old man ordered that Finn's arm be cut out from the demon's belly before it was completely gone.

"Bring the knife as well, make sure the blood is still on the blade," he said, closing the tent flap. It had taken the better part of an hour to finally retrieve Finn's arm. The skin was almost all gone and the muscles were beginning to melt, showing the white bone underneath. The grass blade remained, almost perfect, save for the dried blood coating it. When they brought the arm and the bloody knife the old man ordered everyone out. "No matter what you hear or see, no one must enter the tent."

With that the tent flap closed. Inside they could hear the old man speaking softly, praying to something in hushed whispers. Then he began to sing, softly at first in a high, sharp voice in a language no one had heard before. Inside the tent a fire began to burn and they could see the old man's shadow dancing on the wall. He held something up in his left hand over his head, though from the angle they couldn't be sure if it was the knife, or Finn's arm.

Then, Finn began to scream. His high pitched wailing began to mingle with the old man's high singing until the two were indistinguishable from each other. Another shadow passed along the wall, this one was of a massive horned creature, followed after by a horse on fire.

"Black magic," one of the centaurs whispered. It was then that Jake noticed the whole of the army had gradually began to gather to watch. So engrossed was he by what was going on inside the tent he'd been ignorant to the outside. "We have to stop this, he's calling down demons!"

When a few of them moved towards the tent they were stopped by Samantha stepping between them and the tent.

"You heard the old man," she said, holding up her battleaxe. "No one enters."

"I don't take orders from you!" one of them exclaimed, as he reached for his sword the battleaxe came whistling forward in an instant. The foolish centaur went down, his head split perfectly down the middle.

"Anyone else?" she asked. When more centaurs moved forward, each drawing his weapon. Jaime stepped before them.

"The next man to try to enter the tent will be hanged," he said, looking at each centaur one by one. "Go, return to Galilee and prepare to march to war."

They were gone within the hour, Jake wasn't sure if they were just happy to be returning home or scared of what was happening here.

When the sun began rising in the east, the tent flap opened.

"It's done," he said simply, standing aside to let them enter.

When Jake entered, he stopped to look back and saw that the old man had vanished.

Finn was slowly coming around. His head was swimming and his arm felt like it was on fire. He thought about the demon biting his arm off, but; that must have been a dream, he could feel his arm.

"What going on?" he asked, he looked around at the shocked faces of his friends. "What? What's-"

His voice died in his throat. His arm was a dark purple color, the flesh from his shoulder down to the long thin talons for fingers was made of thick, hard scales. The grass blade had turned black and grown long purple thorn dripping with some kind of clear fluid, mostly likely poison.

Finn began to scream.

 **END CHAPTER 13**


	14. Broadcast

**Broadcast**

* * *

"I think you'll find everything in perfect order," Starchy said. He held out his identification papers and photo id card to the Battlebot stationed at the entrance to his radio station. The large android took them in one large steel fist and began scanning them. "Looks like rain later today, hope your waterproof."

Despite chuckling at the bad joke, Starchy mentally kicked himself for even saying anything at all. The Battlebots never responded to anything said to them, he wasn't even sure if they COULD talk. He began to look around as he waited, he'd counted almost 5 dozen cameras on his way to work, and passed over a dozen Battlebots stationed on every street.

The princess had told them that the cameras and extra Battlebots were for their own protection, that The Lich was somewhere about and that it wasn't safe to be out after dark. At really was the case, no one had ever seen anything prowling around at night before, least of all The Lich.

When his papers were returned, Starchy quickly ducked inside and locked the door. Heading upstairs, he wasn't surprised to see two more Battlebots standing outside his recording room.

"Mornin' boys," he said, trying to sound cheerful as he stepped between them and went inside. Immediately their heavy footsteps began chasing after him and the door slamming shut told him that they were staying. Sitting down, he adjusted his microphone and flipped the switch. "Good morning, Candy Kingdom! It's your old pal Starchy here with your morning news."

He shuffled through the pile of new papers that had been left for him, by who he didn't know.

"Our first order of business is that the fall concert has been canceled due to it falling after curfew, but; it will be rescheduled for the following Saturday at 2PM," he read. Behind him he could feel mechanical eyes watching him. ""Remember, curfew is at 6PM tonight, and be sure to always have your identification papers and photo id cards with you whenever you leave the house, this is so the Battlebots can recognize who is a Candy Kingdom citizen, and must be protected, and who is an enemy and must be dealt with."

"Now, onto more somber news, Finn the human has turned traitor to our beloved Princess Bubblegum. I know I can't believe it either, but; it happened, he has sided with The Lich and is planning to wipe us all out! Luckily, our princess has already taken steps to prevent this from happening." he said, trying to keep his voice calm.

Behind him, the sound of the Battlebots stepping closer made his spine tingle, he had to be careful with this next part.

"In her infinite wisdom, Princess Bubblegum had brought us many allies to combat The Lich," Starchy said. "Castle Lemongrab has taken over guarding the Western Pass into the kingdom, and our ally the Flame King, not his daughter Flame Princess, has promised full support of his army once the Lich has been driven from the Fire Kingdom. I don't know about you folks, but 3 armies makes me feel a lot safer than just one."

Starchy set the paper aside and readied to read the last page.

"There's to be a royal wedding, Breakfast Princess is to marry our own brave and true knight, Sir Slicer. He and the royal army are riding right this very minute to retrieve his royal bride and bringing her back here for the wedding. The festivities will be this Friday starting at 8AM with a royal breakfast, followed by the wedding ceremony at 11AM, then with lunch served at 3PM," he read. "I'm sure the blushing bride is eagerly awaiting the arrival of her future husband as he comes to sweep her off her feet."

* * *

From the balcony, she watched as the Marauders began scaling the walls with ladders and grapnels. Her bacon knights were fighting them back off the ladders as they came one by one, but; more and more were getting onto the walls as her forces began to be stretched thin by the fighting. She felt a knot twist in her chest as something heavy slammed into the gates.

The Marauders had come screaming out of the morning mist like a hairy tide. They hadn't had time to boil any syrup to pour onto the attackers before the barbarians were beginning to scale the wall. She had ordered letters to be sent out to the Fire Kingdom as well as the Jungle and Slime Kingdoms for aid. She had thought of sending one to the Candy Kingdom, but; PB's Banana Guards were no matched against the Marauders. Her hopes were quickly dashed as two of the birds were shot down, only the one bound for the Jungle Kingdom slipped through the hail of arrows.

"Fly fast little one," she whispered. Beside her, French Toast Princess was looking just as worried. Thankfully, Strudel Princess was still asleep, and hopefully would sleep straight through the death that was surely coming for them.

"What do we do, Becky?" she asked, hugging her tightly.

"We pray, Frieda," Breakfast Princess replied, hugging her sister back. "We pray."

A final, savage crash rang out through the kingdom as the gates finally gave way to the battering ram and a throng of barbarians came swarming through the open gates. The final stand of her army quickly became a full on retreat as the Marauder's pursued them on horseback. Breakfast Princess was confused, after getting through the gates, the Marauders stopped killing her soldiers.

"What's going on?" the two princesses jumped and turned to see Strudel Princess coming groggily towards them, still rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Before they could stop her, she hopped up and looked out onto the Marauders herding her forces back towards the palace. "A parade!"

Breakfast Princess had to restrain herself from slapping her youngest sister. But; she mentally thanked Glob that her sister was far too young to understand what was happening.

"Yes, Stacey, a parade," she said, fighting to keep her voice calm and the tears from falling. Taking both of her sisters by the hand, she led them back into the palace. "Let's go see what the parade is for."

By the time three princesses made their way down to the throne room, they found what remained of their army kneeling on the floor with their wrists bound behind their backs. Marauders were everywhere, they filled the room from side to side and corner to corner. It looked as if the whole barbarian army tried to cram inside.

"There she is boys, my bride," a knight dressed in armor as black as night sat on her throne, his feet were propped up by a kneeling bacon knight. "I told you she was pretty."

The assembled savages began to laugh as the princesses stepped out into the room fully and made their way before the throne.

"You're no Marauder, who are you?" Breakfast Princess asked.

"I'm your new husband," He replied, placing his hands behind his head and smirking. "They call me Sir Slicer, but; after we're wed it'll be King Slicer."

Before Breakfast Princess could even begin to think of response to that statement, Strudel Princess spoke up.

"You can't marry her!" her sister screamed, her shrill voice filling the room. "She's going to marry Finn!"

Sir Slicer smiled slyly, and leaned forward, placing his feet on the floor.

"Oh, is that true, little girl?" he asked, his voice just dripping with sarcasm. "You hear that boys, my lady's to marry that traitor!"

The knight stood, and drew the sword at his hip. The grip and cross guard were black, the pommel was in the likeness of a hissing cobra. The blade itself was pure silver and shined beautifully in the light.

"That makes you a traitor as well, princess," he said. Slicer nodded his head, and immediately, Breakfast Princess and her sisters were each violently seized by two Marauders each and forced down to their knees. "The penalty for treason, is death."

Breakfast Princess's heart was pounding in her chest. Tears began welling up in her eyes as she watched the knight draw back his sword and in the instant before he swung it down, she made a decision that would change the fate of Ooo forever.

"I'll be your wife," she said, bowing her head. "Just don't hurt us."

With that, the Princess found herself being carried out of her palace over the heads of the Marauders, laughing and cheering as they carried her out to where a carriage was waiting. Too late she realized, after they tossed her in and slammed the door, that she was alone.

She began to cry out as the carriage pulled away and could only watch helplessly as the Savages began ripping at her sister's dresses and, mercifully, she could see no more as the carriage headed towards the gate.

* * *

They stopped to rest again after only traveling a few miles. Finn was looking extremely pale, his skin was soaked with sweat and his eyes were bloodshot and had developed dark bags under them that seemed to get darker and darker with each passing day.

The hero was always tired, like he wasn't getting any sleep at all, though he sleep like a dead man every night. they'd been forced to tie him to Jaime's back to keep him from falling off after the first day when it became apparent that the human was too weak to walk very far.

He complained constantly about his arm, saying that it ached and throbbed and it had began to itch him terribly but; he couldn't stand to scratch it as the mere act of touching it made him howl. When they removed his shirt to check his wound they found the area to be severely red and swollen. To make matters worse, black veins had began slowly creeping from the arm.

By the third day they were across his shoulder, and by that night they were on his chest.

"Time to check him," Jake said, dreading what he's find. Lifting up Finn's shirt, the magic dog felt like he was going to be sick. The veins had snaked down to his friend's bellybutton, and, to his horror, the flesh around the black tendrils was starting to turn red and puffy. "Oh Glob, this is bad, this is really bad!"

"Here, give me a knife," Rattleballs said. He took the dagger Jaime offered him, and carefully turned Finn onto his side. "Try and hold him still, this will hurt a lot."

Jake and Samantha grabbed the human by the arms and legs as Rattleballs deftly sliced into one of the creeping black veins. Finn began to scream and thrash as Rattleballs slid the knife along one of the tendrils and began pressing down on the hero's stomach.

The group wrinkled their noses as a thick black fluid began oozing out of the open gash. After a minute or so, the gumball robot sliced further along the vein and squeezed more dark fluid out.

"STOP! FOR THE LOVE OF GLOB PLEASE STOP!" Finn howled. The thrashing became more violent as thick slobber began running out of the human's mouth, making him look like a rabid animal. "YOU'RE KILLING ME! YOU'RE KILLING ME!"

"Rattleballs stop!" Jake exclaimed, struggling to hold Finn still. "That's enough! He can't take this!"

"Get away from him!" a voice shouted. The group looked to see a green skinned girl with leaves for hair looking down at them from a tree branch. Several arrows crackling with magical energy were floating around her. "Get away now or die!"

 **END CHAPTER 14**


	15. Weapons

**Weapons**

* * *

The only light source in the room was coming from the large tanks lining the wall, four on each side. Bubblegum hummed to herself as she passed them by, briefly stopping to look at one of the figures floating in the glowing green fluid. Behind her came a large red and silver Battlebot. It was almost twice the size of a normal unit, but; it's brain was modeled after hers, though at a much lower IQ.

"Dirge, do you know what all these things are?" she asked, she stopped in front of a computer console at the end of the room and began typing a list of commands into it. Immediately, several of the tanks began to drain and empty.

"Weapons, my princess," he replied, his voice sounding hollow and lifeless. "Weapons for the protection of the Kingdom."

"Correct, although, these few are for something much more important," she said. After making the deal with Marceline's father, PB quickly began a new batch of cloning as a last line of defense, splicing and altering several different species DNA, of course though, the way things were going in the field she doubted that she'd need all of these walking weapons. "Come, lets go greet them."

The sound of thick Plexiglas shattering caused her to jump slightly. Down the line she turned to see a large orange and black striped arm burst through the glass again. Immediately, Dirge was in front of her and his large steel fists retraced into his arms and were quickly replaced by a pair of blasters. The remaining glass was violently torn from the tank and hurled across the room.

The creature that emerged was almost seven feet tall with a body corded with thick, powerful muscles. The large tiger head turned to looked towards the two of them and a deep rumble like thunder began emitting from it's throat. With a loud roar that seemed to shake the ground beneath her feet, the tiger creature charged.

"Stop," she said, her voice calm and cool as a cucumber. The massive monster stopped just short of leaping at Dirge, it remained hunched over, its long, sickle like claws extended. After a few seconds, it stood up straight. "It's reassuring that your training overcomes your instincts, Wrath."

Wrath looked down at her as she stepped in front of the Battlebot. When she pointed to the ground, he dropped to one knee, she was still forced to reach up to touch his face. Her soft, pink fingers glided over his face, gently tracing her thumb over his nose before her fingers pushed back his lips to reveal his fangs.

His long tongue slipped out from between his fangs and licked the hands that were inspecting his teeth. When she moved onto feeling his ears he spoke.

"Who do you want me to kill, princess?" he asked bluntly, his voice sounding like an explosion in deep water.

She smiled at him.

"Regretfully, the King of Ooo has abandoned me," she said, lowering her hands. "He was ordered to hunt down an enemy of mine, yet, my spies tell me all he does is spend his time drinking in a tavern, take care of him for me, and then find his target, can you do that for me?"

"It will be done at once," he replied. Standing up, Wrath turned and quickly dashed from the room.

Bubblegum smiled and nodded to herself, Wrath would prove to be a most skillful hunter. She prided herself on the data that she had spent decades collecting now would be put to use to teach her newest creations everything that she knew and be ready to act as her warriors.

A huge ursine was the next to emerge. A massive thing that easily would dwarf Wrath had they stood side by side. To her surprise most of the thick fur had fallen out, revealing the thick armored plate underneath. She hadn't been sure of mixing grizzly bear and armadillo DNA together would bring anything worth keeping but; loss of fur aside, it turned out okay.

"How do you feel, Hellbear?" she asked. The great bear clenched it's massive paws and began snarling, thick strings of slobber began dribbling from his mouth.

"Hungry, so hungry!" he roared. His gazed suddenly snapped over to the third tank finally opening. The princess wasn't able to get a look at the creature emerging before the giant ursine was upon it. Hellbear swiped at it with one massive paw, caving it's skull in with a meaty thunk, before bringing it down to the floor with the full weight of his body and began to devour it.

"Hibernation, I should have known that," she said. Stepping closer, while keeping a good distance to avoid the pooling blood and stray bits of flying meat, she could see what remained of the ruined face was something that resembled a canine of some sort, not a dog, but not a wolf. "Looks like you had, poor timing, Jackleman."

"Princess, another weapon is emerging," Dirge's voice snapped her out of the daze she'd been in, fascinated by the sight of Hellbear tearing apart the unfortunate creature piece by piece.

The final tank slid open to allow a winged dinosaur creature to step out and spread its wings. The creature flapped several time, briefly lifting several inches off the ground. Its long mouth opened and it let out a shrill cry that made her ears ring.

"Enough of that, Saurian," Bubblegum ordered. The Pterodactyl fell silent, folding its wings around itself like a cape, it stepped forward and bowed slightly. "At least you have manners."

"Why shouldn't I?" he asked. "I'm no mindless brute like Wrath or Hellbear."

She was surprised by that.

"How did you know I already released them?" she asked. "Your tank only just now opened."

Saurian smiled knowingly at her.

"I could hear everything in there," he replied. "I've listened to your voice everyday as I grew, I know what you want of me."

The princess nodded.

"Bring her to me," Bubblegum ordered.

"Your will is done, my princess," he replied, bowing again.

When the Pterodactyl slipped from the room, PB turned to where Hellbear was still gorging himself on the remains of her unfortunate creation.

"Hellbear, enough!" she said sternly. The mighty ursine pulled his gore soaked maw from inside Jackleman and looked towards her, a length of intestine still clenched in his fangs. "Come here, now!"

After ripping the piece of intestine free, Hellbear quickly swallowed it whole, before raising to his feet and lumbering over to where she stood.

"I have an important task for you," she said. The armored bear regarded her lazily. "I want you to hunt south of the river for Finn the Traitor, kill him."

"Can I eat him?" he asked, his tongue lapping at the blood dripping from his muzzle.

"Bring me his head," she said. "Eat the rest of him if you want, just remember I need his head."

"Eating his brains?" he asked.

"To mount on a spike," she replied. "Now go, and don't return until you succeed."

The titanic Hellbear nodded and lumbered towards the door.

"He's going to kill and eat whoever he finds," Dirge said, after the bear had left the room.

"Yes, I dont' actually plan for him to kill Finn," she said. "Once Wrath had spilled blood and Hellbear gets the scent of it both of them with be after the Lich."

"You think they'll work together?" the android asked.

"Does it matter?" she asked. "These weapons of mine have a short lifespan, barely 2 months give or take how much damage they receive."

* * *

Outside the dingy tavern the storm raged on, thunder boomed and lightning flashed. Inside the atmosphere was completely different, everyone was good and drunk, none so much more than the King of Ooo.

"Another round for the house!" he exclaimed, raising his tankard so fast he spilled half of it on the drunk next to him. "All on Princess Bubblegum!"

The pouch full of gold the princess had given him wasn't even halfway close to being half empty yet, despite the King of Ooo being more than generous with PB's money.

"To Toronto! The best friend a king could ask for!" he called, though no one answered his toast. "Gone too soon, murdered by….. he was murdered!"

Despite being so shitfaced he didn't know where he was, the memory of the night in the orchard kept jumping to his mind everytime he brought up his dear friend. He remembered the arrow hitting that elephant, and Toronto being an idiot. But; he'd always remember Slicer driving his sword into the dog's throat.

"That bastard," he mumbled, taking a sip of his beer, only to find it empty. "Fill me up barkeep, chop chop!"

The door slamming open brought in a great gust of wind that brought the inside of the tavern into complete darkness as the candles all went out within seconds. After what seemed like an eternity, someone managed to shut the door, and within short order, the candles were relight.

"Anyway, like I was saying…." the King of Ooo's voice died away, looking in the mirror he saw something swinging back and forth behind him. He couldn't tell what it was as it twined back and forth like a pendulum. Turning around he saw that it looked like a tail. He looked up and felt a shiver go down his spine, as well as the last few beers go down his leg.

He screamed at the pair of green eyes looking at him from the rafters. The Lich had found him, he barely turned to run before a massive orange and black thing lunged from the shadows above, but; luckily, the King of Ooo was already moving. He felt something pass behind him like a breeze seconds before something heavy slammed into the bar and everyone began to scream.

Running out the door into the storm, the King of Ooo made a headlong flight down the road, ignoring his tethered horse as he wouldn't have had time to untie and mount it before that thing was upon him. Somewhere behind him a roar as loud as thunder echoed. His foot skidded in the mud and he almost lost his balance for a second.

He nearly fell, but; somehow, managed to keep his feet. Behind him he could hear the heavy grunts of a large animal in pursuit. He cursed himself as he glanced back over his shoulder.

There was nothing there.

Slowly, his pace lessened until he was stopped and gasping for breath. The Lich was gone, had he lost it or was it still in the tavern killing everyone.

"As long as it's not after me," he muttered. A grunt behind him, caused the King of Ooo to turn, and immediately something raked his stomach, sending a fire of pain throughout his body. He clutched at his stomach, blood was pouring through his fingers as something wet and slimy began pressing out into his hands. "OH GLOB!"

A flash of lightning revealed a massive, gore streaked orange and black striped creature. To his horror, it held up a handful of his guts in one large clawed hand and snarled at him. The King of Ooo moaned in his throat and stumbled away. Turning, he began a slow, half run, trying to make good his escape, while also trying to hold his guts inside his body.

"HELP!" he shrieked, looking back he saw the monster was still just standing there, watching him. "SOMEONE HELP ME!"

Something cannoned into him from behind, sending him to the muddy ground and a pain shooting through his body. He barely had time to cry out in pain before he was seized and yanked up by sharp claws digging into his back. The King of Ooo felt hot, putrid breath on the back of his neck before something heavy slammed into the back of his head and everything went black.

Wrath shoved the King of Ooo's lifeless body down into the mud and licked the bits of brain from his fangs. Now that this was finished he could move on to the real task his princess wanted of him.

Hunting down the boy.

 **END CHAPTER 15**


	16. Witch

**Witch**

* * *

Bronwyn sighed in defeat, there was no turning back now. She stood looking at the door, silently willing it to be locked. If no one was home she could just go skate and hideout somewhere for a few hours until going home to tell her dad no one was there. She didn't really know why her dad wanted her to stay with her grandma for the next few days, and hadn't thought to ask until she left the house.

"Okay, just try the knob, it'll be locked," she muttered, unfortunately, fate had other plans as the door swung open to reveal a smiling Lady.

" _Bronwyn, your just in time!"_ she exclaimed, immediately pulling the teen into a tight hug and giving her a kiss on the cheek. She blushed in embarrassment, mostly because she was almost 16 and still being treated like a baby. _"Come in, I want you to meet Sweet P."_

"Sweet P?" she asked, the Rainicorn quickly ushered her inside and shut the door.

" _Sweet P!"_ Lady called, upstairs, Bronwyn heard the sounds of heavy footsteps coming towards the stairs. _"He's doesn't understand Korean, so that'_ _s_ _mostly why your here."_

"What's the other reason?" Bronwyn asked. The heavy footsteps began descending the stairs slowly, stopping on each step before stepping down another.

" _Well, I thought it would be good for him to have someone younger to play with,"_ Lady replied. _"TV doesn't want to play with him, and he can't understand me so here you are. Just remember, he's very fragile and sensitive. So be nice!"_

When Sweet P finally reached the bottom of the steps, Bronwyn found herself having to crane her head back to look at his face. He was taller than her by a good couple inches as well as almost 4 times her size. The horns, one broken and one whole, caught her attention right away. A sharp elbow in her side broke Bronwyn from her daze as Lady poked her again.

"Hi, I'm Bronwyn," she said, trying her best to seemed cool and bored.

To her surprise, Sweet P began to blush.

"Hi," he said shyly, before quickly rushing back up the steps.

Great, a giant kid crushing on her was the last thing she needed.

* * *

Bubblegum hummed to herself as she ran a brush through her soft, pink mane. The dark circles around her eyes could easily be covered up with more makeup, and the twitching at the corner of her mouth could be fixed with a simple injection of muscle relaxant.

"Things are finally looking up for you Bonnie," she said, setting the brush down, PB began applying makeup underneath her tired, bloodshot eyes. She couldn't remember the last time she actually slept, outside of a quick snooze every once in awhile and that was only 5 minutes at a time. "I'll sleep when the Lich is dead, and with Wrath hunting his trail that won't be long at all."

She was in a better mood now than she'd been earlier. Tiffany's letter told her that Finn had taken a grievous wound in battle, his whole right arm was off at the shoulder, that was the good news, the news that made her scream and throw anything within reach was that despite the injury, Finn had managed to gain an army of centaurs, dogs, and Rainicorns. Luckily, her royal army would be due back any day now before that ragtag band of traitors could march to the Candy Kingdom.

She looked down at the glowing emerald between her breast and felt a wave of fear slide down her spine. A last resort, that was all it was, and with how her campaign was going she wouldn't need to use it. Once Slicer broke and wiped out Finn's forces, the rest would be easy.

"He is a boy playing at conqueror, once my Marauders tear through his line he'll beg for my mercy," she said, lightly squeezing the jewel with her hand. "Let them come, and I'll break them."

* * *

"GET BACK! NOW!" Huntress Wizard leaped to the ground and began coming closer. The arrows floating around her began to glow with more and more energy the closer she came.

"Take it easy, HW," Jake said, trying to calm the green skinned woman down while still trying to hold the thrashing boy still. "It's not what it looks like."

Upon coming closer, Huntress Wizard's face quickly went from rage filled, to a shocked sadness within seconds. The arrows around her immediately lost their energy and fell limply to the ground as the female wizard lost her concentration and dove to Finn's side.

"Finn, oh Finn what happened to your arm?" she asked, gently running her hand across the scaled flesh. The pained scream from the human caused tears to begin well up in her eyes. "It's killing him, this arm is going to kill him."

"Kill him?" Jake muttered, his voice soft and weak. "But…. The old man said…."

"What old man?" she asked, looking up at him.

"An old blind man dressed in white and-"

"-Wrapped in chains," HW finished. "The Watcher."

"Who?" Jaime asked. "I've never heard of any Watcher."

"No one outside of wizards know about him, the legends say that he goes from here to there in a blink of an eye," she said, closing her eyes and speaking as if she were reading from a book. "He appears as an old man garbed all in white with great heavy chains weighing him down. Some say he travels in the form of a giant white direwolf, others that he leads a ghostly bands of hunters and spectral hounds. But; all agree on the same thing, where ever he appears, death follows him."

Silence followed as her words began to sink in for all of them. Carefully placing Finn's head in her lap, Huntress Wizard removed her back and began digging through it.

"What're you looking for?" Jake asked, as she began placing strange bottles filled with multicolored powers and foul smelling liquids on the ground beside her knee.

"This," she held up a small bottle filled with a blue-green liquid. Opening the cap, she poured it onto the swollen area where Finn's shoulder and torso met. She then began to gently knead it into the flesh, and almost immediately, the swelling began to lessen. "There, that should help with pain for awhile, at least til we reach her house."

"Who's house? We must return to Galilee at once," Jaime said. "The princess has an entire wing of the castle filled with all manner of healers and-"

"He's not going to last for much longer," Huntress Wizard said, she carefully placed Finn's head back on the ground before standing up and pulling her flute from her belt. The soft melody began to fill the air and soon it was deafening as it continued to ring for miles and miles. "Our ride will be here soon."

Within minutes, the bushes began to tremble and shake as a large elk pushed its way through into the clearing.

"Jake, help me get Finn up onto Elky's back," she said. "We'll take Finn to get his arm fixed, the rest of you return to Galilee."

When the two of them finally wrestled the weak and weary human up onto the giant elk's back, Huntress Wizard climbed up behind him while Jake shrank down and climbed up onto her head. With a tap of her boots on it's side, the elk shot off into the forest, leaving the rest behind in an instant.

"So, where are we going?" Jake asked, holding onto HW's antlers.

"To my master, she taught me everything I know about the forest and it's magics," she replied, ducking a low hanging branch.

"Oh yeah?" Jake asked. "What's her name?"

"The Witch of The Wilds," Huntress Wizard replied. "Baba Yaga."

* * *

In a darkened grove, hidden under the vast branching arms of a dead willow tree a crooked house set upon two massive chicken legs was the house of Baba Yaga. The Watcher came, effortlessly he passed through the various magical traps with nary a glance and what manner of beasts the witch used to guard her lair turned tail and ran from him.

"So, The Watcher finally comes to me," a voice called, it was old and hard. It came from all around, but; he knew it was inside the house.

"Open your door to me," he said, holding out his hand, palm facing the house. "I won't ask again, witch."

Seconds passed like an eternity before a loud, creaking began to emanate from in the shadows under the tree as the massive chicken legs began to move and brought the house down to the ground.

"Enter my house of your own free will, but; know that you may not exit if I so choose," Baba Yaga said laughingly. The Watcher entered, in the dim light from only a few stray candles he looked around himself, his scarred, sightless eyes seeing everything and nothing. "What do you want from me, blind man?"

The Witch was old and ugly, small and stooped, she leaned against a gnarled cane that looked to be almost as old and haggard as she herself.

"The Dead Lantern," he said, when his eyes locked with hers, the witch began to tremble. "I know you have it, give it to me."

Baba Yaga shook her head and scowled.

"I have no lantern here," she said, she turned and began hobbling away, deeper into the shadowed house. "Go away, and leave an old woman in peace."

"Stop," he said, his voice boomed like thunder inside the small room. The witch groaned and covered her ears. "I see all there is, was, and will be, you know that witch. Now give me the Dead Lantern, and hurry, they will be here soon and I must be away."

Baba Yaga looked back at him, and gnashed her teeth threateningly at him, but; she hobbled back into the darkness. The Watcher waited, listening as she bumbled around in the dark. In the distance, he could hear the sounds of the elk still a mile or so off. He must be gone before they arrived.

"Here, take it!" the witch returned, the lantern was carved with skulls that had rubies for eyes, inside the glass several shrieking phantoms could be seen floating around, screaming out in pain and torment. "You play a dangerous game, Watcher. How long before all your strings hang you?"

The Watcher took the lantern and carefully hooked it on his belt.

"They won't," he replied, reaching his hand under his cloak.

"It will," she replied, cackling. "When I tell your real name is-"

The Watcher pulled his hand out from under his cloak and held out a large glowing orb. Baba Yaga shrieked as a bolt of crimson energy shot out and splattered her all over the room in a loud blast of power.

"My name is The Watcher," he said, tucking the orb back under his cloak. He exited the house and shut the door. He walked several steps from the door and began digging under his cloak again, he removed a bottle filled with glowing blue liquid. Placing it on the ground, he vanished in a bright flash of white energy just before the great elk galloped into the clearing.

"Here, we are," Huntress Wizard said, dismounting. "You help Finn down while I go get Baba Yaga to dispel her traps and call off her pets."

Jake hopped down from her head and quickly grew to his normal size as HW headed off towards the house. Immediately, she felt that something was wrong. Baba Yaga usually would have said something by now. So lost in her thought that Huntress Wizard barely noticed that something clinked against her boot.

"What's this?" she mumbled, looking down, she saw that it was a bottle filled with a strange blue liquid. "Hmm, that's strange."

picking it up, HW turned the bottle over in her hand to find a note scrawled on the reverse side.

"For Finn," she read, looking towards the dark house, a sliver of fear crept into her mind as she wondered why the bottle was left outside like it was, in all her years of training, Huntress Wizard had never seen Baba Yaga leave her house or leave something like this outside. "Something's wrong here, but; it will have to wait."

Quickly jogging back to the two heroes, Huntress Wizard popped the cap on the bottle. Carefully holding Finn's head, she slowly began pouring the bottle's contents into the human's mouth. Almost immediately the black veins began to retreat until they finally vanished from sight. The swollen incision was the next to go as the flesh began to shrink and smooth until there wasn't any trace of it having been there at all.

"Why isn't his arm changing back?" Jake asked.

"I don't know," she replied. "Look though, he's getting better."

Finn's skin began to darken, and the dark bags under his eyes quickly vanished. Within minutes, he looks as good as new. Looking back towards the house, Huntress Wizard felt the fear return.

"Jake, stay here," she said, leaning Finn over onto the dog. "I'm going in there."

Jake watched as Huntress Wizard drew an arrow, and magicked it into a spear as she grew closer to the house.

"Jake, where am I?" Finn asked, the human tried to sand up, but; quickly fell back onto his friend. "I feel a lot better, but; why's my arm still all weird?"

"That's what I said but-"

Huntress Wizard screaming began to fill the air. The two heroes made their way over as fast as they could with Finn leaning on Jake for support. Inside the house, Huntress Wizard was sitting on the floor, in the middle of a gore streaked room.

She couldn't stop screaming.

 **END CHAPTER 16**


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